In our digital landscape today, data isn't just an asset, it's the core of every organisation. It powers AI, shapes how customers experience things, and drives the insights that steer strategy and growth. But as data gets more valuable, it also becomes more at risk. Data without governance becomes chaos, and without security it becomes a liability.
To unlock the full potential of AI and digital transformation, organisations must approach data governance and security not as compliance checkboxes, but as strategic enablers of trust, innovation, and resilience.
The recent PwC’s Global Digital Trust Insights 2026 survey result highlights that successful AI implementation and adoption depend upon robust data risk management: high‑quality, well‑curated data, and enterprise‑level governance and security so that data is being utilised in the appropriate manner. But preparedness lags in Australia, with only 45% of organisations having extensively implemented data classification policies, compared with 50% globally, and 51% having data loss prevention on primary egress channels, compared with 48% globally; other controls lag further behind. Globally, only 6% of organisations have implemented all surveyed controls across the enterprise. Refilling this gap with transparent, responsible and secure data practices will be critical to building digital trust and achieving AI‑driven innovation and growth.
The extent organisations have implemented measures to address data risk
Q5. To what extent has your organisation implemented or is planning to implement any of the following measures to address data risk across the enterprise?
Source: PwC 2026 Global Digital Trust Insights
The why: Trust is the new currency
In an era where AI systems influence lives, economies, and industries, the way organisations govern and protect their data becomes a foundational capability, one that builds trust and underpins responsible innovation.
- Customers want transparency about how organisations use their data.
- Regulators look for responsibility and accountability.
- Executives count on data-based insights to make quick large-scale decisions.
Without trust, innovation stalls. But when an organisation earns trust through robust data management and protection, it doesn’t just keep pace, it leads.
The how: Going beyond silos to holistic data stewardship
It is no longer valid to view data governance as a once-off project and consider security as an afterthought. Today's modern enterprises need a unified strategy that covers:
- Discovery and classification: Knowing what data exists and where it resides in organisation data landscape.
- Policy and protection – Applying appropriate safeguards based on context and sensitivity.
- Identity and access – Making sure the right people get data at the right time for the valid reasons.
- Continuous monitoring – Predicting risks, spotting misuse, and adjusting in real time.
Above all, organisations must seamlessly embed governance and security into everyday work processes, not add them as barriers.
"AI highlights what I call the sins of the past; the unfinished work around identity management and data security that makes organisations hesitant to adopt AI. The opportunity is using AI itself to solve these historical challenges: surfacing identity issues, improving data classification, and building the governance foundation that enables secure AI adoption at scale."
Mick Dunne, Chief Security Advisor at Microsoft ANZMicrosoft's vision: Secured and governed with intelligent data
Microsoft's approach shows this complete picture; a unified ecosystem where security and governance team up to enable innovation.
Microsoft Purview stands at the heart of this plan; a system built for the AI age. PwC and Microsoft are working together to make sure data governance and protection is at the heart of every organisation's digital ecosystem, bringing together expertise in cyber security, privacy, tech resilience and data governance. Purview helps organisations:
- Establish a single source of truth by discovering and classifying data across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Accelerate AI and analytics by making trusted, well-governed data easier to discover and use.
- Reduce data exposure and breach impact by enforcing data-centric controls that persist and adapt.
- Simplify compliance with regulatory or industry standards and rich auditing capabilities.
- Manage risks and communications by surfacing patterns of potential data theft or policy abuse in corporate communications.
- Lower cost and complexity by consolidating tools and policies and automating high-friction governance tasks and processes.
Microsoft Purview is now more than a compliance tool. It is the backbone of a trust fabric that allows organisations to innovate with confidence.
The future: From guardrails to growth
The organisations that thrive in the next decade will be those that transform governance and security from reactive guardrails into proactive enablers of growth. This is not about slowing innovation with red tape, it’s about accelerating innovation by making sure data is trusted, resilient, and responsibly used.
Microsoft’s investments in platforms like Purview, alongside its broader security ecosystem, point toward a future where businesses can scale data landscape, AI and analytics securely, responsibly, and at speed.
The question for leaders today is no longer “Why should we care about data governance and security?”. Instead, they should think, “How can we leverage them as the foundation of trust, innovation, and competitive advantage in the AI-driven future?”
About the authors
