Forty percent of compliance teams act on AI-generated regulatory guidance always or often without expert review, according to new research from Enhesa, the global leader in regulatory intelligence trusted by leading Fortune 500 companies. Teams that skip verification entirely are nearly three times as likely to report a regulatory fine at 37% against those that don't at 13%.
The state of AI in regulatory compliance: 2026 benchmark report found that AI adoption in compliance has become nearly universal as regulatory complexity rises. Enhesa tracked more than 22,000 major regulatory changes in 2025, along with over 15,000 major changes in 2026 through August. To manage regulatory pressure, 76% of teams now run AI across the entire compliance function or fully autonomously on at least one core compliance task. Fifty-six percent have already faced a negative outcome tied to unverified or incorrect AI output.
"Regulatory change is moving faster than anyone can track manually and comes with material business impact. Fifty-three percent of companies said they increased outside consulting costs, and 34% delayed a product launch or market entry as a result," said Keith Berry, CEO of Enhesa. "AI can help companies stay ahead of regulatory change, enter new markets faster and protect their bottom line, but only when leaders can trust the data informing it and defend their actions."
Enhesa's research is based on a survey of 273 senior compliance, risk, EHS, legal and sustainability decision makers at multinational companies with 5,000 or more employees.
Regulatory complexity is straining compliance teams with 90% reporting at least one business impact from regulatory complexity in past year, such as increased legal or outside consulting costs at 53%, significant increase in workload at 41% and delayed product launches at 34%. Growing complexity has caused 60% of companies to reconsider, delay or abandon entry into new market in past two years, including 18% who abandoned one outright. Eighty-eight percent say regulatory requirements change again before previous change is fully implemented.
Compliance leaders report significant improvement over past 12 months from AI use in speed to identify and react to regulatory changes, as well as efficiency of compliance monitoring and reporting each cited by 48%. Improvement in speed from AI use is reported nearly twice as often as improvement in anticipating future regulatory risk at 26%.
Negative outcomes reported in past 12 months attributed to unverified or incorrect AI output include incorrect filings at 30%, regulatory fines at 21%, missed deadlines at 20% and failed audits at 18%. The gap widens for teams furthest along with AI. Of the 37% running fully autonomous or agentic AI on at least one task, 71% reported negative outcome compared with 47% of everyone else.
Shadow AI use is linked to higher rate of negative outcomes. Sixty-four percent of compliance teams put sensitive material into personal or non-corporate AI tools in past year, most often proprietary chemical or manufacturing data at 33%. Those same teams also reported negative outcomes at 82%, compared with 9% of teams that entered nothing.
Teams that verify AI outputs avoid fines. Teams that rarely or never skip expert review reported regulatory fine at just 7%, compared with 27% of everyone else. Forty percent of compliance teams act on AI-generated regulatory guidance always or often without expert reviewing first. Top reasons are pressure to improve speed and efficiency at 47%, confidence in AI tool's accuracy at 42% and regulatory deadline urgency at 34%.
"AI alone provides teams with speed. Expert counsel alone provides strategic, defensible judgment. Our data shows that together, compliance teams can move as fast as regulatory change demands, with the confidence that every decision will hold up," concluded Berry.
About Enhesa
Enhesa is the AI-powered regulatory platform trusted by the world's largest multinationals to see every compliance risk in one place, defend every decision, and act faster. Spanning environment, health and safety (EHS), product compliance, chemicals, and corporate sustainability, Enhesa combines AI-enhanced technology built on 35+ years of proprietary data validated by regulatory and chemical experts across 40+ countries, tracking requirements across 450+ jurisdictions in 65+ languages. The leading Fortune Global 500 companies rely on Enhesa to turn regulatory complexity into clear, defensible action.
