Regulatory Consulting at Grant Thornton Public Sector

Overview

Grant Thornton’s public-sector practice sits inside a broader firm that has made AI governance — not AI adoption alone — its central 2026 research theme. The firm’s flagship 2026 AI Impact Survey, based on responses from nearly 1,000 senior business leaders, documents what it calls the ‘AI proof gap’: a widening divide between organizations racing to deploy AI and their ability to prove, on demand, that the AI is governed, accountable, and safe. That framing translates directly into Grant Thornton’s federal financial-management and grants-management work, where audit-readiness and accountability are not optional extras but the core product the firm sells to government clients. Grant Thornton pairs this diagnostic research with practical governance offerings — AI governance programs for boards and audit committees, controls that ‘hold up under scrutiny,’ and guidance on managing AI financially as a disciplined investment portfolio rather than a scattered set of pilots.

AI-Focused Regulatory Work

Grant Thornton’s 2026 AI Impact Survey delivers one of the sharpest audit-readiness statistics in this directory: 78% of business executives lack strong confidence they could pass an independent AI governance audit within 90 days. As Grant Thornton Advisors managing partner Tom Puthiyamadam put it, ‘AI deployment is simply outpacing the infrastructure that supports it… guardrails come after an incident occurs — not before — and by then there may be significant organizational and operational consequences.’ The survey’s most consequential finding for anyone building an AI-policy case is economic: organizations with fully integrated AI are nearly four times more likely to report revenue growth than those still stuck piloting (58% versus 15%), and Grant Thornton’s analysis attributes the gap not to technology but to accountability — whether an organization can show how its AI makes decisions, who owns the outcomes, and what happens when something goes wrong. When surveyed leaders were asked to name the biggest drivers of AI underperformance, governance and compliance barriers topped the list at 46%, ahead of insufficient training (31%) and data readiness (23%) — yet only 11% identified risk and compliance as the function needing the most investment, a disconnect Grant Thornton flags as a leadership blind spot. The firm has operationalized this diagnosis into board-level guidance (defining what ‘strong AI oversight’ looks like at the governance level: briefings, established policy expectations, and integrated risk oversight) and into internal-audit programs for managing AI risk enterprise-wide. For a directory reader working in federal financial and grants management, Grant Thornton’s research makes an unusually concrete, numbers-backed case that responsible-AI governance isn’t a compliance cost — it’s the precondition for the revenue and performance gains agencies and companies actually want from AI.

Notable AI Policy Work

• Published the 2026 AI Impact Survey (nearly 1,000 senior business leaders), finding 78% lack confidence they could pass an independent AI governance audit within 90 days, and identifying a widening ‘AI proof gap’ between AI deployment and governance.
• Found organizations with fully integrated AI are nearly four times more likely to report revenue growth than those still piloting (58% vs. 15%), attributing the difference to accountability and governance rather than technology alone.
• Identified governance and compliance barriers as the top driver of AI underperformance (46% of leaders), ahead of insufficient training (31%) and data readiness (23%) — while only 11% prioritize risk/compliance investment, a flagged blind spot.
• Published board-level AI governance guidance defining ‘strong AI oversight’ (education/briefings, established policy expectations, integrated risk oversight) and internal-audit programs for enterprise-wide AI risk management.
• Publishes ongoing guidance on ‘AI democratization’ — the governance risks created as no-code/low-code platforms let business units deploy AI independently, often bypassing traditional IT and governance channels.

Thought Leadership

1. 2026 AI Impact Survey Report
   Grant Thornton’s flagship research documenting the ‘AI proof gap’ — 78% of leaders lack confidence in passing an AI governance audit, and governed AI correlates with nearly 4x higher revenue growth.
2. A Widening ‘AI Proof Gap’ Is Emerging
   The press release detailing the AI Impact Survey’s core findings on governance confidence, workforce AI-readiness, and the cost of ungoverned deployment.
3. AI and Governance Issues: 3 Keys to Bridging a Costly Gap
   Analysis of the survey’s four critical dimensions of the AI-governance gap — governance, strategic focus, workforce readiness, and agentic-AI risk.
4. Make Your Board a Springboard for AI Benefits
   Defines what strong board-level AI oversight looks like and shows how governed boards help organizations integrate AI faster and more safely.
5. AI Governance That Holds Up Under Scrutiny
   Practical guidance on building AI controls that are clear, organized, and tested — directly relevant to Grant Thornton’s federal grants and financial-management audit work.

Clients

Federal, state, and local government agencies (financial management, grants management, IT modernization) plus commercial clients across industries. AI governance research and advisory delivered through Grant Thornton Advisors LLC.