AI governance gets harder when the people using company data do not understand or follow the rules.
On September 21, Gartner forecast that by 2027, 60% of organizations that overlook the cultural challenges of data governance will fail to govern AI successfully. In a survey of 223 data and analytics leaders, cultural resistance was cited more often than funding constraints as a reason governance initiatives fail.
For business leaders, the issue is practical. A policy cannot do much if teams do not understand why it matters or how to apply it in their daily work. Gartner recommends connecting data governance to business outcomes, sharing responsibility across business and technology teams, and building it into existing workflows.
The business takeaway: Make data ownership clear, explain the purpose of the rules, and give teams a practical way to follow them. Trusted data depends on what people do every day.
Source: Gartner, September 21, 2026