Until recently, when a new environmental regulation, for example, came into force, the process of adapting companies required weeks of meetings. This process used to involve requests from the IT department, the development of new forms, and, finally, team training.
Today, however, the speed of compliance defines business survival. In a hyperconnected environment, the time between a standard’s publication and its practical implementation (the so-called execution gap) should be minimal.
In this new context, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer a passive consulting tool; it assumes an active role in construction. One of the significant trends for 2026 in Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) is not just asking AI “what the law says”, but having the technology create the process to meet this new legislation.
Read on to see how Generative AI’s ability to create forms and workflows from prompts is redefining operational efficiency and mitigating risk in large organisations.
The new focus of GRC in 2026
If, in 2024, companies were still cautiously piloting AI projects, 2025 and, especially, 2026 mark the era of maturity and AI-assisted governance. The market has recognised that technology is the only viable way to address the global regulatory tsunami, especially in highly regulated markets.
It’s this growing regulatory change that increases the pressure on compliance leaders. Team burnout and the increasing volume of regulations are critical challenges that require more than human effort; they also demand strategic technology. Compliance is no longer about filling out bureaucratic paperwork and checking manuals but about ensuring real-time data integrity and security.
According to Gartner, by 2026, Generative AI will be the primary driver of data security programs, reducing employee-caused cybersecurity incidents by up to 40%. The consultancy notes that the focus has shifted to protecting unstructured data and optimising tools to minimise security professionals’ fatigue.
This revolution also increases the importance of Artificial Intelligence management in accordance with the strict standards of ISO 42001. As a result, companies must face a new paradigm: AI not only reads data but also structures its collection.
The benefits of using AI to create processes and forms
The core technology that is expected to transform GRC by 2026 is the “Text-to-Form” capability. It is the ability to transform a natural-language command — that is, a prompt — into a structured, functional digital asset.
For leaders and managers, this represents three immediate strategic benefits:
- Democratisation of IT: A compliance or quality manager no longer needs to enter a long IT development queue to create a data collection flow. It has the autonomy to generate the required tool instantly.
- Time-to-Compliance: The reduction in the time to implement new controls is drastic. What used to take weeks now takes minutes. This mitigates the company’s exposure to fines and reputational risks during the adaptation period and reduces non-compliance (and its legal implications).
- Standardisation and best practices: When generating a form, AI doesn’t start from scratch. It uses the knowledge bases specified in the prompt to suggest the most appropriate fields. This ensures that no critical requirement is overlooked by human error.
How to put Artificial Intelligence into action in your company
In corporate day-to-day, this trend materialises in tools with advanced capabilities to integrate Artificial Intelligence, forms and processes (such as SoftExpert Suite). In these cases, there are some practical scenarios where the prompt becomes management:
1. ESG and sustainability
In the case of companies that need to collect energy consumption indicators from several branches for a sustainability report, for example, each region has regulatory particularities.
- The action: The manager uses a prompt such as: “Create a form for collecting monthly energy consumption data, including fields for electricity and fossil fuels, adapted to the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) guidelines”.
- The result: AI generates a structured form, ready to be distributed, ensuring the data is returned standardised for analysis and includes all necessary information, personalised to the recipient.
2. Health and Safety (EHS)
For example, if a company acquires a new line of industrial machinery, the safety team must ensure that daily inspections strictly follow the manufacturer’s manual to prevent accidents.
- The action: The safety engineer uploads the manual as a PDF and issues the following command: “Generate a daily safety inspection checklist for a given machine, based on the operating risks described on page 15 of this manual.”
- The result: A digital checklist is instantly created, linked to the asset in the system, and ready for operators on the shop floor to access on different devices.
3. Quality Control and Audits
With updates to standards such as ISO 9001:2026, companies need to audit their current processes against the new requirements.
- The action: The internal auditor asks artificial intelligence: “Create an internal audit roadmap focused on change management, considering the requirements of clause 6.3 of ISO 9001″.
- The result: AI structures the audit roadmap, suggesting verification questions, action plans and evidence fields, accelerating certification preparation and reducing the risk of nonconformances.
SoftExpert Form: Intelligence applied to business
In addition to leveraging AI, SoftExpert Form stands out for its contextualization. Generative Artificial Intelligence integrated into the platform recognises that a form is not an island but part of an ecosystem.
In this way, when creating a form via a prompt, the solution already considers data types (such as text, number, date, selection), required validations, and, crucially, integration with existing workflows in the system.
This means that SoftExpert‘s technology transforms the manager’s intent into an executable, traceable and auditable business process. Form features include editing existing forms and setting up new fields, as well as conditional rules and triggers in responsive forms from natural language prompts.
In addition, the tool provides prompt suggestions for creating a form or configuring new elements. In this way, the solution eliminates manual bureaucracy and allows leadership to focus on strategy rather than tool operations.
Conclusion
By 2026, regulatory compliance efficiency will shift from a competitive differentiator to a market imperative. Organisations that still rely on manual processes to create their internal controls will always be one step behind in managing risks.
In this new landscape, the ability to use AI to build processes and forms instantly is key to turning compliance into a strategic advantage.
Looking for more efficiency and compliance in your operations? Our experts can help identify the best strategies for your company with SoftExpert solutions. Contact us today!
Generative AI and Compliance FAQs (FAQ) in 2026
The main challenge is the execution gap, i.e. the time that elapses between the publication of a new standard or regulation and its practical implementation within the company. In a hyperconnected environment, this time needs to be reduced to near zero to ensure the business’s survival and competitiveness.
AI has ceased to be a passive tool of consultation (“what the law says”) and has assumed an active role of construction. The trend for 2026 is to use AI to automate the processes and structures (such as forms and workflows) needed to comply with the new legislation immediately.
GRC’s maturity in 2026 is defined by AI-assisted governance. Companies understand that technology is the only viable way to cope with the growing volume of global regulations. The focus shifts from filling out bureaucratic paperwork to ensuring real-time data integrity and security.
IT democratisation: Compliance or quality managers gain the autonomy to build the tools they need instantly, without relying on the IT development queue (Citizen Developer).
Time-to-Compliance: The time to implement new controls is drastically reduced (from weeks to minutes), mitigating exposure to fines and reputational risks.
Standardisation and Best Practices: AI suggests suitable fields based on knowledge bases or prompts, ensuring no critical requirement is overlooked due to human error.
The differential of the SoftExpert solution is contextualization. The AI understands that the form is part of an ecosystem. When creating a form via a prompt, the solution considers data types, required validations, and, crucially, integration with existing workflows, turning the manager’s intent into a traceable, auditable process.
