GRC is officially old enough to be in grad school. In our 2023 market evaluation, GRC technology turned 20 years old but was still figuring out what it wanted to be when it grew up. It couldn’t decide between functions like spreadsheet replacements, systems of record, or assessment and reporting tools. In 2025 and beyond, it’s now about doing the hard work — reshaping platforms, workflows, and even job descriptions to keep up with enterprise, ecosystem, and external (systemic) risk that never sits still. It now needs to earn its keep as the workhorse technology for the GRC professional; an undergraduate ambition that has yet to be fulfilled.

GRC platforms must trade theory for practice and finally prove they can deliver real-time, decision-ready insights that actually steer the business.  When we did the research for The Governance, Risk, And Compliance Platforms Landscape, Q4 2025, we analyzed:

  • Where does the market stand? GRC platforms have matured into integrated enterprise systems for interconnected risks and obligations, but many programs still struggle to extract full business value from these investments. Customers complain about antiquated workflow, reporting, and analytical capabilities that haven’t evolved to meet current problems such as pressure from global regulations, AI disruption, and continuous operational shocks.
  • What’s changing inside platforms? Continuous controls monitoring (CCM), risk quantification (e.g. cyber risk and eventually enterprise risk), and more practical AI use cases are shifting GRC from static checklists to real-time insights. Risk operating models and the daily tasks of risk professionals will be radically altered as these new functionalities are adopted.
  • How should buyers approach vendors? Treat GRC as an enterprise backbone and demand evidence of end-to-end automation, embedded AI, and low-/no-code capabilities that reduce manual work, consulting spend, and time to value. Longtime GRC users are no strangers to legacy configuration challenges; ask about self-service features that will make managing the platform easier.
  • Where is the market headed next? Agentic AI, GRC engineering, and operational AI governance will push GRC toward continuous risk management. However, be cautious of vendors claiming to have mature agentic AI technology today. Realistically, customers should expect more emphasis on larger scale workflow automation, with agentic AI-enabled use cases over the next 18-24 months.

To see how these shifts play out in more detail across 30 vendors, check out the full evaluation, The Governance, Risk, And Compliance Platforms Landscape, Q4 2025. Use this report to see how holistic GRC use cases are evolving and how vendors are addressing these needs. And schedule an inquiry or guidance session with us for additional insights.