Governance, risk, and compliance is a major growth opportunity, but how will the market develop?

The multi-billion governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) market is being driven by an increasingly complex regulatory environment, including GDPR, NIS2, and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) frameworks, among others.

At the same time, the growing integration of AI and automation technologies into GRC solutions is fueling adoption, as businesses see the benefits of applying digital transformation across their GRC strategies.

As we all know, the threat landscape continues to be extremely challenging. Cybersecurity and data protection breaches are increasingly followed by compliance enforcement action as authorities look to improve standards across the board.

Take GDPR, for example, where cumulative compliance fines burst through the €5 billion (£4.18 billion) barrier this year as part of a wider regulatory ecosystem where individual penalties can run into the millions.

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In addition, there’s also the potential compliance risks brought about by the integration of AI technologies into business processes. Here, issues such as data privacy, lack of transparency, and advanced tools that simply outpace existing regulatory frameworks are increasing the emphasis on compliance and whether organizations are keeping pace with their responsibilities.

Put these factors together and the results point to strong growth across the global GRC sector. Already worth more than $43 billion (£34.53 billion) this year, it is expected to accelerate significantly to surpass $111 billion (£89.13 billion) by 2032, according to industry figures. It’s not surprising that this is translating into significant and rapidly growing interest from the channel.

The road ahead 

Clearly there is demand from customers across various sectors, many of whom share a sense of urgency around compliance and want to get a robust GRC strategy in place – or at least update the technologies and processes they’re already relying on.

This translates into a significant opportunity for the channel, especially for those who are already specialists in cybersecurity. Whilst these are specific specializations in their own right, GRC and cybersecurity are clearly complementary. These firms should be well-positioned to drive GRC growth, including GRC as a service and virtual CISO offerings as these can be tailored to the specific requirements set out by NIS2, GDPR, and DORA, for example.

For resellers, MSPs and SIs there is a golden opportunity to build a service and product portfolio around that knowledge of the various essential compliance frameworks, leading them to engage in conversations with a wide range of customers on how they are preparing to step up their GRC efforts.

The availability of centralized compliance platforms will also help MSPs offer continuous monitoring and reporting services across customers’ business functions. These tools integrate data from various systems, such as cybersecurity, ITSM, or ERP tools, to provide a unified view of performance and potential vulnerabilities. At the same time, automated compliance workflows are growing in importance and, in many businesses, are already playing a major role in managing risk assessments, policies, and compliance audits.

There is also an important role for channel partners who can customize vendor solutions to meet sector-specific or regional requirements. Post-Brexit, for example, UK organizations that trade within the EU remain subject to various compliance requirements and as such, must design their processes and technology stack to address their obligations. Many of these businesses need the kind of expert guidance and experience that channel specialists are ideally placed to offer.

For instance, there has been growing demand for compliance solutions and a marked increase in the number of channel partners being onboarded. This is a trend we can expect to see accelerate further as organizations prioritize their compliance strategies, focus their investments and work more closely with service providers who can meet their needs. Ultimately, there is an opportunity for leaders in the field of AI and automation to help steer channel partners to offer a risk-aware approach to compliance by harnessing the power of AI and automation.

Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, the regulatory landscape will become even more complex. As a result, organizations will need to ensure their compliance efforts remain continually robust, in line with authorities moving from periodic to ongoing assessment. I anticipate that we’ll see a significant growth in channel partners focusing on their compliance offerings, including those who diversify their approach to help their clients integrate compliance tools seamlessly with other existing systems, streamline workflows, and ensure audit readiness.