Bottleneck to Breakthrough: AI Governance That Scales

The technology will expire. Your strategy shouldn't. Nick McQuire (advisor to C-level leaders on emerging tech) argues that the key to ROI isn't picking the "right" tool today, it's building a system agile enough to switch tools tomorrow.  He also lets us in on where AI could be going - the risks and the opportunities - and reveals how to future-proof your organization and AI Governance program now. Hint - a leader who rolls up their sleeves and experiments with AI is key.   

If your AI strategy treats consent like a legal checkbox, you aren't just risking a fine, you’re risking your company’s future. Eric Bowlin (Partner in Digital Trust and Privacy, Deloitte & Touche LLP) breaks down the evolving landscape of consent. He shares how to build AI capabilities that “talk to data” without breaking trust and why transparent consent is your most valuable competitive advantage.

Leadership teams get stuck in a dead-end debate: Move fast or play it safe. When Pam Snively (Chief Data & Trust Officer, TELUS) prepared to launch TELUS’ first generative AI customer support tool, she found herself at the center of this exact tug-of-war - pulled by teams eager to move and teams focused on risk.  Pam shares crucial lessons from the front lines of TELUS’s GenAI rollout. Why compromise is the wrong goal. And, what Purple Teaming taught her about AI-Ready Governance that treats risk management as an engine for innovation, not a roadblock.

Where should AI governance actually live? Milin Chhanechhara (Lead Data Scientist, Lumen Technologies) and Andrew Gaskins (Principal Solution Architect, Lumen) reveal why the traditional top-down approach to AI-Ready Governance is broken. They share the blueprint for a new model that highlights collaboration and empowers local teams while maintaining responsibility and safety.  You’ll hear what breaking down governance silos has made possible for their global teams and what a cross-functional approach to AI-ready data actually looks like. https://www.onetrust.com/podcasts/trustonomy/ https://www.onetrust.com/platform/

Bryan McGowan, Global Trusted AI Leader at KPMG, reveals how they build a governance framework that moves at the speed of innovation, and enables scale without sacrificing security.  The conversation also looks ahead to what’s coming next, including the governance challenges posed by agentic AI, identity and access controls, and the importance of testing and validation across the AI lifecycle. Articles / Reports Mentioned:  Can AI run a company without people?  Tools / Companies Mentioned:  https://www.onetrust.com/podcasts/trustonomy/ https://www.onetrust.com/platform/

Season 2 of Trustonomy returns with a singular focus: AI-Ready Governance. Host Ojas Rege shares expertise from leaders who are currently writing the playbook for the AI era. This isn’t a season about theory; it’s a series of tactical debriefs on balancing speed with safety and opportunity with oversight. Listen in for strategies that will help you and your governance team move from brake to accelerator.

Over three days in the fall of 1982, seven healthy people in the Chicago area died suddenly. At first, medical examiners were baffled but soon realized all the victims had taken Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules. Public trust in the medication vanished overnight. Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, had to act fast if they wanted to save lives and their product.This season we’ve been sharing stories about companies and organizations that made mistakes and lost public trust. In this episode, we’re looking at a company that did nothing wrong but had to find a way through a crisis to rebuild trust. Veteran Chicago news reporter Phil Rogers recalls how the Tylenol Murders terrified the nation and how Johnson & Johnson managed the crisis. OneTrust’s Chief Trust Architect, Andrew Clearwater, examines how Johnson & Johnson defied the odds and actually strengthened trust in their brand.

In the early 1990s, Carletta Tilousi was one of hundreds of people from the Havasupai Nation who gave blood samples to Arizona State University researchers. They hoped to discover why type 2 diabetes was an epidemic in their remote community in the Grand Canyon. The Havasupai never did get any answers about diabetes, and for over a decade they had no idea their blood samples were being used by other researchers for projects that had nothing to do with diabetes. Many companies collect personal data - names, birthdays, interests, payment information, and geolocation. But there’s no data more private and sensitive than biological data. So what happens when that information is used without consent?  Carletta recalls the day she found out the tribe’s samples were being used without consent, the anguish the research caused, and how the Havasupai fought to bring their blood back home.  Linda Thielova, OneTrust’s Global Data Protection Officer and Head of Privacy Centre of Excellence, explains why the Havasupai's story is no ordinary privacy violation, and how organizations can build trust-driven relationships around data. 

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, drawing America into World War II. Admiral Husband Kimmel, a decorated veteran and commander of the US naval fleet in Hawaii, was completely caught off guard. But it didn’t have to be a surprise. How did the US forces at Pearl Harbor miss the critical warning signs? Mismanagement of important intelligence data played a significant role.Companies run on data. It’s the backbone that allows them to understand their customers, make informed decisions, and see the big picture. But what happens when you don’t know what data you have, where it is, or how to access it?Steve Twomey, author of Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack, explains why the US forces at Pearl Harbor were unprepared for the attack, and Scott Bridgen, former Global GTM & Strategy Lead-GRC & Integrated Risk at OneTrust, explains why

In 1986, Allan McDonald was the head of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Motor program at Morton Thiokol, the company that built the rocket boosters for NASA’s Challenger space shuttle. Allan warned NASA management that the Space Shuttle Challenger was at risk of exploding. They didn’t listen and the world watched the disaster unfold on their TV screens. There’s a fine balance between getting things done and getting them done the right way. Every business has deadlines, technical hurdles, and contractual pressures to consider. But what happens when you create an environment that prevents people from sharing ideas and concerns?James R. Hansen, author of Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster, tells Allan’s story, and Jisha Dymond, OneTrust’s Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, explains how NASA's workplace culture contributed to the disaster.