A new industry report into the future of compliance shows that while senior leadership engagement has strengthened over the past year, many organisations are still held back by manual processes, inconsistent data practices and limited evidence of training impact.
The Annual Benchmarking Report, published by compliance training provider Skillcast, surveyed over 100 compliance, learning and development, and training professionals from organisations across the UK. The findings offer a year-on-year view of how businesses are adapting to rising regulatory expectations and cultural accountability.
Encouragingly, almost 70 per cent of respondents say senior management is actively engaged in promoting compliance, a marked improvement on 2025, when fewer than half of organisations reported visible leadership support. This shift reflects growing recognition that compliance cannot sit solely with risk and compliance teams, particularly under accountability-focused regimes such as SMCR and Consumer Duty.
However, board-level involvement remains uneven. Only around 40 per cent of boards regularly participate in training or development and only 32 per cent have compliance committees, raising concerns about whether tone from the top is consistently reinforced and evidenced.
In 2025, the focus was on shorter, more engaging training; by 2026, it has shifted to proving effectiveness. Continuous, ongoing training has increased from 53 per cent to 74 per cent, yet a quarter of organisations still do not formally assess the business impact of compliance training, limiting their ability to justify investment, refine programmes, or demonstrate value to senior stakeholders.
Despite improving digital capability, 39 per cent of organisations still rely on email and Excel for compliance data, limiting visibility, slowing reporting and delaying regulatory responses – though this is a significant improvement from 81 per cent in 2025.
Meanwhile, AI adoption is rising but remains cautious. Use in training and awareness has increased from 10 per cent to 22 per cent, yet more than half of respondents still do not use AI in compliance. Financial services are particularly cautious, with 61 per cent reporting no AI use compared to 39 per cent in non-financial services, reflecting greater risk sensitivity.
More organisations now recognise compliance as a competitive advantage compared to last year, but budget pressure remains, with limited scope for large-scale investment increases. This places greater emphasis on prioritising high-impact activity, improving data quality, and strengthening collaboration between compliance, HR and leadership teams.
“Compared to 2025, it’s encouraging to see a clear increase in senior management engagement with compliance,” said Vivek Dodd, CEO at Skillcast. “That shift matters, because visible leadership support is one of the strongest drivers of culture, accountability and sustained progress.
“That said, our 2026 findings show that many organisations are still constrained by manual processes, fragmented data and limited evidence of training impact. Spreadsheet-led compliance may feel familiar, but it restricts insight, slows reporting and makes it harder to demonstrate value at board level.”
Dodd concluded: “As regulatory expectations continue to rise, particularly around accountability and operational resilience, organisations need to move beyond intention and into execution. That means investing in better data foundations, reinforcing learning throughout the year and ensuring leadership involvement is not just visible, but measurable.”
Skillcast’s Annual Benchmarking Report can be found here: https://www.skillcast.com/resources/2026-annual-benchmarking-report
