Diligent adds agentic AI to governance risk platform

Diligent has added new agentic AI features to its Diligent One governance, risk and compliance platform, expanding audit and risk workflows.

The update includes an orchestration agent, AI-based reporting and a connected intelligence layer that Diligent calls the GRC brain. The additions are intended to help risk and audit teams automate tasks, coordinate assessments and prepare reports through a conversational interface.

Diligent is targeting a common problem in governance, risk and compliance work: information spread across different systems, manual approvals and reporting processes that can take days. Its orchestration agent is designed to route work to specialised agents across audit and risk functions after users describe a task in natural language.

According to Diligent, the orchestration agent sits inside Diligent One and draws on connected governance, risk and compliance data. In practice, risk teams can use it to monitor risk data, clean records, coordinate assessments, follow up overdue actions, escalate issues and identify emerging risks.

For internal audit teams, the software is intended to turn audit preparation into a conversational workflow. It can identify relevant risks, map them to audit objectives, link existing controls and support evidence collection, testing and findings development.

Reporting tools

Diligent also introduced AI reporting that uses live risk and controls data to produce what it describes as board-ready reports on demand. Users can generate reports through prompts or templates, with source citations included in the output.

The aim is to cut the time spent gathering information, drafting insights and preparing presentations. The move reflects a wider push across software markets to apply generative AI to document creation and workflow management, particularly in heavily regulated business functions.

Another part of the update is the GRC brain, a connected intelligence layer that links regulations, obligations, policies, controls, risks, evidence and actions. Diligent said this layer gives its AI agents the context needed to reason across related datasets and explain the basis for recommendations.

The connected model is meant to help teams identify gaps, set priorities and respond more quickly when risks change. Select Diligent products are due to receive the GRC brain first.

Executive comments

Brian Stafford, President and Chief Executive Officer of Diligent, said the changes are aimed at reducing complexity in governance, risk and compliance work.

"For many organizations, GRC work is slowed by fragmented systems, manual coordination and time-consuming reporting processes," Stafford said.

"Our latest agentic capabilities help teams cut through that complexity by connecting context, surfacing what matters and driving faster execution - while keeping governance and professional judgement at the center," he said.

Diligent framed the update as a response to growing demands on risk and audit teams to provide more continuous oversight rather than periodic reviews. Businesses are facing a broader range of operational, regulatory and governance risks, while boards and senior management want faster reporting and clearer lines of accountability.

Scott Bridgen, General Manager, Risk & Audit at Diligent, said the shift in expectations is changing how those teams work.

"Risk and audit teams are being asked to look beyond what happened yesterday and give the business the insights it needs to make better decisions today and tomorrow," Bridgen said.

"That means moving from static, point-in-time reporting to always-on monitoring that can identify changes as they happen and trigger action in real time, with the right level of oversight, approval and accountability," he said.

Diligent said it serves more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members. It positions Diligent One as a platform that gives practitioners, senior executives and boards a single view across governance, risk and compliance activities.

The latest release shows how software suppliers in this market are trying to embed AI more deeply into specialist business processes rather than limiting it to search or text generation. In Diligent's case, the strategy centres on using connected data across risks, controls and obligations to support workflow decisions and reporting.