AI Dominates Compliance Priorities at Historic Margin as Firms Move from Awareness to Action

Investment Adviser Association, ACA Group, & Yuter Compliance Consulting. (2026, July 29). AI dominates compliance priorities at historic margin as firms move from awareness to action. ACA Group. https://www.acaglobal.com/news-and-announcements/survey-ai-dominates-compliance-priorities-at-historic-margin-as-firms-move-from-awareness-to-action/

• The 2026 Investment Management Compliance Testing Survey, released by the IAA, ACA Group, and Yuter Compliance Consulting, found that 85% of investment adviser firms identified AI as the top compliance topic for 2026, a 28-percentage-point increase from 2025 and the most dominant single response in the survey's 21-year history.

• AI led the ranking of top compliance topics ahead of cybersecurity (37%), privacy/Regulation S-P (35%), advertising and marketing (19%), and prediction markets (14%).

• Firms moved from awareness to action, with 72% increasing their AI compliance testing in 2026, representing the largest year-over-year testing increase of any tracked topic.

• AI policy adoption advanced significantly, as 80% of firms formally adopted AI tools, 86% established acceptable use policies, 86% maintained inventories of AI tools, and 59% created formal AI governance committees.

• Governance gaps persist, with only 48% of firms holding human-in-the-loop oversight policies, 37% governing testing and validation of AI outputs, 30% addressing third-party AI use, and 14% updating incident response plans for AI-related disruptions.

• SEC examination focus areas remained consistent year over year, led by advertising and marketing (57%), books and records (53%), conflicts of interest (53%), fee calculation and billing (48%), and personal trading/code of ethics (36%).

• Compliance program structure and budgets held steady relative to 2025, while third-party risk management continues to evolve, with 39% of firms already making significant changes and only 7% maintaining a formal process to assess fourth-party risk.

Knote: To misquote Buffet: You want an AI system that is flexible, impactful, and controlled. And if you get the last one wrong the first two will kill you.