Businesses without a formal responsible AI policy dropped sharply in 2025, falling to 11 percent of organizations from 24 percent the year before, according to the Policy and Governance chapter of Stanford's 2026 AI Index Report. The same chapter found that AI specific governance roles inside companies grew 17 percent over the same period, as more organizations created dedicated positions to oversee how artificial intelligence gets deployed and monitored.

Regulatory pressure appears to be easing slightly even as governance structures expand. The General Data Protection Regulation remained the most cited regulatory influence on organizations working with AI, but the share of companies naming it slipped to 60 percent from 65 percent year over year. At the same time, the portion of organizations reporting no regulatory influence on their AI practices at all fell to 12 percent from 17 percent, suggesting more companies now operate under at least some compliance framework.

Together, the figures point to enterprise AI governance maturing quickly, with formal policies and dedicated oversight roles becoming standard practice rather than the exception even as the regulatory landscape itself continues to shift. The Policy and Governance chapter is part of the broader 2026 AI Index Report, an annual research effort from Stanford's Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence that tracks AI adoption, investment and regulation trends worldwide.

Source: Stanford HAI - https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2026-ai-index-report/policy-and-governance