In this opening analysis from Audit & Beyond in San Diego, theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight and Rob Strechay set the stage for a full day of coverage on how AuditBoard is reframing audit, risk, compliance and infosec in the era of AI. Fresh off the keynote, they break down the event’s core themes: AI-powered assurance, an AI-enabled GRC ecosystem and AI-driven insights designed to take the toil out of audits – without replacing people. The discussion highlights keynote takeaways from AuditBoard leaders (including mentions of Raul Villar, Happy Wong, Anton Dam and Sarah Goff), the “technology as amplifier” message (“we don’t replace your intelligence, we release it”), and why faster decision-making is emerging as a competitive advantage for enterprises.

The conversation explores what to listen for throughout theCUBE’s coverage: product announcements such as document intelligence and a platform-wide assistant backed by a trusted knowledge library; demos that showcased scenario planning tied to evolving regulations; and how automation can streamline data collection and bow-tie analysis across frameworks like SOX, GDPR, NIST, the EU AI Act and DORA. Knight and Strechay also address skills and culture: AI anxiety, upskilling for data literacy and shifting expectations for teams adopting new tooling. They touch on AuditBoard’s expansion into AI governance with the FairNow acquisition and why real-world scenarios – like modeling the impact of a newly announced tariff or entering a new country with no extra headcount – make operationalizing AI, strengthening cyber resilience and aligning risk programs with business outcomes more urgent than ever.

In this Audit & Beyond conversation, Richard Chambers, senior internal audit advisor at AuditBoard, joins theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Rebecca Knight to unpack findings from AuditBoard’s Risk Intelligence Report and what he calls the “middle maturity trap.” Chambers explains why many organizations show early momentum on risk and AI adoption (with June showing notable progress) only to backslide the following month, and how a crisp strategy with clear objectives helps break the stall. He stresses enterprise-wide commitment – starting with understanding risks before designing controls – and the value of a steady cadence (e.g., tabletop exercises) to turn risk management from a check-the-box task into a strategic advantage.

The discussion explores how leadership, board oversight and clear risk tolerance move AI beyond perpetual pilots. Chambers frames today’s AI moment as uniquely transformational, urging teams to put guardrails and policies in place while aligning programs to outcomes. He shares why executive sponsorship matters, how communication across audit, risk, infosec and the C-suite builds trust, and why plans should be “written in pencil” to stay agile amid volatility. The interview also touches on AuditBoard’s newly announced enhancements that help auditors and risk teams leverage existing data – analyzing records, policies and vendor landscapes to surface anomalies in minutes instead of weeks – accelerating insight without compromising governance.

In this Audit & Beyond segment, AuditBoard leaders Anton Dam, senior vice president of AI and Product, and Happy Wang, chief product & technology officer, join theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Rebecca Knight to unpack the company’s newest AI capabilities – including the launch of Accelerate. Wang explains how Accelerate doubles down on purpose-built, human-in-the-loop design to embed AI directly into day-to-day workflows: document intelligence to turn sprawling docs into clear narratives and flowcharts; scenario planning and stress testing that elevate teams from operations to strategic enablement; and an automated security questionnaire experience that maps and normalizes responses from spreadsheets. The discussion also touches on the crowd-pleasing bow-tie visualization and why these co-pilot experiences are “more than just a chatbot,” pulling context automatically so practitioners can review results with full references.

Dam details the rigor behind making AI auditable and traceable – from comprehensive evals to catch omissions and hallucinations, to observability that tracks model drift over time. He underscores a core principle: users remain 100% in control, with approvals before anything becomes system of record. The conversation also covers what AuditBoard is hearing from customers (including the more-than-half of the Fortune 500 they serve): top-down mandates to “do more with less,” standing up AI governance programs (bolstered by the FairNow acquisition), and meeting users where they work – notably extending capabilities into Excel. Looking ahead, Dam and Wang outline priorities around completeness across workflows, combining internal and external data for scenario planning, and advancing a connected risk ecosystem that turns dashboards into guided action plans – empowering auditors, CISOs and risk leaders to spend less time on toil and more time on strategy.

In this Audit & Beyond interview, Amrita Kapoor, head of internal audit at Snowflake, joins theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight and Rob Strechay to unpack how a hyper-growth, AI Data Cloud company is redefining internal audit. Kapoor explains how her team evolved from SOX readiness at IPO to a data-driven assurance function that partners with the business. She details Snowflake’s use of analytics for access controls and key report testing, the push toward 100% coverage (moving beyond sampling), and a target of ~40% automation in the SOX program by pairing analytics with agentic AI for testing and documentation. The conversation highlights how internal audit can act as an efficiency catalyst while staying ahead of emerging risks in fast-moving environments.

Kapoor also shares practical guidance on digital upskilling (cross-training auditors across business, IT and data skills) and how Snowflake teams collaborate with security and compliance on evolving requirements like data sovereignty. She discusses Snowflake’s work with AuditBoard as a connected app for proactive controls monitoring – connecting to Snowflake, configuring queries and triggering exception alerts within AuditBoard’s governance layer – along with the company’s attainment of ISO 42001 to bolster customer trust in AI use. Listeners will hear concrete examples of using Q&A agents and workflow agents to accelerate risk research, evidence gathering and documentation so audit can focus on strategic advisory.

In this Audit & Beyond segment, theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight and Rob Strechay sit down with Jan Murry, director of internal audit at General Electric Aerospace, and April Crichlow, chief marketing officer at AuditBoard, to unpack how AI is reshaping risk and audit. Murry shares why teams are shifting from reactive to proactive and predictive risk management – and how breaking down silos with transparency, governance and modern tooling helps align to business outcomes. Crichlow underscores the enduring value of human judgment in the AI loop, noting findings from AuditBoard’s Risk Intelligence Report that 70% of companies plan to invest in more risk professionals and 40% in cybersecurity roles. She also highlights AuditBoard’s acquisition of FairNow to address the growing need for AI governance. The conversation explores practical steps to upskill leaders and boards, govern AI responsibly and collaborate across the enterprise to turn risk into opportunity.

The discussion also touches on leadership and talent: from mentorship and “lift as you climb” to fostering psychological safety and authentic leadership – insights amplified by the event’s Women in GRC Roundtable. Murry reflects on General Electric Aerospace’s first year as a standalone public company and the evolving risk posture that comes with increased materiality and cyber exposure. Throughout, the guests connect the dots to theCUBE’s core coverage angles: operationalizing agentic AI without compromising ethics, establishing connected governance across the three lines and strengthening cyber resilience while measuring impact through business-centric metrics.

In this Audit & Beyond conversation, Rich Marcus, chief information security officer at AuditBoard, joins theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Rebecca Knight to unpack how the role of the CISO is evolving from technical guardian to strategic business partner. Marcus shares why social engineering has surged – citing a 400% increase in attempts at AuditBoard – and explains the company’s push to passwordless authentication to blunt credential-theft attacks that make up 70–80% of what employees face. He outlines the rollout playbook (FIDO2-ready hardware, identity and provisioning alignment, training, new hires first, then department by department) and why both users and IT favor the change thanks to simpler onboarding and fewer resets.

The discussion turns to AI governance, compliance and product news. Marcus describes how AuditBoard is “bullish on AI” while staying mindful of privacy- and security-conscious customers: start with visibility, inventory use cases and tools, perform risk assessments and define controls – an approach he compares to earlier cloud transformations. On regulatory operations, Marcus details two announcements: the launch of RegComply to track and manage evolving regulations and version changes, and the acquisition of FairNow to bring deep AI-governance content and expertise into the platform. He also notes AuditBoard’s existing posture (SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR readiness) and uses the “good brakes let the car drive faster” analogy to frame risk management as an enabler of business speed and safety – squarely aligned with theCUBE’s focus on elevating audit, risk, compliance and infosec from checkboxes to strategic advisory.

In this Audit & Beyond interview, Guru Sethupathy, founder and chief executive officer of FairNow, joins theCUBE’s Rebecca Knight and Rob Strechay to unpack the big on-site news: FairNow’s acquisition and what it means for AI governance. Sethupathy explains FairNow’s core mission: to simplify AI governance so organizations can manage risk, build trust and move AI from pilot to production. He outlines the practical workflow: inventory AI systems, tier risk, map controls and compliance, evidence outcomes and prepare for audits and testing. The discussion addresses why many enterprises still don’t know how many AI applications they run, how governance prevents reputational and business risk, and why smart governance can actually speed innovation rather than slow it.

The conversation also explores what customers should expect post-acquisition: continuity in the near term and an accelerated roadmap powered by automation and embedded intelligence, combined with AuditBoard’s distribution reach. Sethupathy contrasts under- and over-governance, using a “rules of the road” analogy, and defines “smart governance” as precision (right-sized to each organization) plus automation (removing tedious tasks). He shares lessons from leading AI initiatives in regulated environments, the evolving risk landscape and why implementation innovation – upskilling, workflow redesign and enterprise risk alignment – takes time. The segment ties directly to theCUBE’s coverage angles: operationalizing AI with assurance and continuous control monitoring, aligning risk programs with business outcomes and strengthening cyber resilience across the three lines.

In this Audit & Beyond segment, Raul Villar Jr., chief executive officer of AuditBoard, joins theCUBE’s Rob Strechay and Rebecca Knight to share how AuditBoard is scaling its AI-fueled connected risk platform and why “risk in isolation is dangerous.” Villar outlines momentum highlights from the event – 7th year of the conference, 1,200+ users onsite, 10,000+ virtual viewers and 40+ breakouts – alongside business updates such as $300M+ ARR, new leadership energy and the acquisition of FairNow to advance AI governance. He explains how AuditBoard is investing to expand across audit, risk and compliance, building comprehensive dashboards for CEOs/CFOs/boards, and accelerating global expansion beyond the UK&I and Germany over the next 18 months.

The conversation dives into practical lessons from Villar’s prior scale journeys (ADP, Paycor, AdvancedMD), including customer-obsessed product roadmaps, embracing AI to eliminate mundane work (e.g., faster coding, automated QA, better marketing workflows) and treating the IPO as an event and public-company operations as a process – where tools like AuditBoard help teams stay SOX-ready quarter after quarter. Villar discusses the surge in GRC spend amid AI and geopolitical complexity, how partners tailor solutions to regional regulations (with Europe often more risk-focused), and how AuditBoard is prioritizing culture, customer obsession and worldwide ambition (with expansion paths through Benelux, Nordics, France, and demand in APJ, Middle East, South Africa).