Organisations across sectors are accelerating their adoption of artificial intelligence, embedding it into everyday operations and decision-making. From customer service to risk assessment, AI is increasingly becoming central to how businesses function and compete.
The Growing Complexity of AI Deployment
At the same time, the rapid expansion of AI use cases is creating new layers of complexity. Many enterprises are struggling to maintain visibility over how these systems are deployed, governed and aligned with evolving regulatory expectations. This has brought sharper focus on the need for structured AI governance frameworks. As companies scale their AI ambitions, balancing innovation with accountability, transparency and risk management is emerging as a critical priority.
The rush to implement AI leaves organisations struggling to track its use, with the promise of increased productivity leading to overreliance on unproven AI without sufficient trustworthy AI safeguards. To bring order to the chaos, SAS AI Navigator will soon be available to help AI, data, compliance and risk leaders compile a complete AI inventory and align AI use cases with government regulations and internal policies.
Reggie Townsend, Vice President of SAS AI Ethics, Governance and Social Impact, stated: “AI governance is too often thought of as a compliance measure. It is a growth driver. Instead of fears of shadow AI putting the organization at risk, AI governance empowers people to push the limits of AI within a structured, transparent and secure environment.”
An AI Governance Breakthrough at a Critical Moment
The use of AI agents and large language models (LLMs) is outpacing trustworthy AI investments, according to a study by SAS and IDC. Furthermore, Gartner predicts that by 2030, more than 40% of enterprises will experience security or compliance incidents linked to unauthorised shadow AI.
Into this environment comes SAS AI Navigator, available in Q3 2026 on Microsoft Azure Marketplace. This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution enables organisations to inventory and govern AI use cases at the point of business impact. The governance extends to models and agents powering use cases, as well as the policies applied to them. For instance, companies using chatbots for customer interactions can govern the underlying agent or model and apply policies to align with regulatory expectations.
Organisations do not need to change how they build AI; SAS AI Navigator offers a unified view of whatever models and tools they already use, including LLMs, AI agents, and open source or SAS models. It supports the full journey from experimentation to deployment through retirement, providing a unified view of all governed assets whether built in-house or purchased from third parties. It also makes it easy for users to apply internal policies and external regulations and frameworks to AI use cases.
Building on a Five-Decade Legacy of Responsible Innovation
SAS AI Navigator expands an already well-regarded AI governance portfolio. SAS has 50 years of experience helping customers deploy transformational technologies responsibly, expertise recognised by industry analysts. Chartis Research recently named SAS a category leader in the Chartis RiskTech Quadrant for AI Governance Solutions, citing the SAS Viya platform’s leading governance capabilities that extend classic machine learning, model risk management, explainability, bias detection, privacy protection and end-to-end monitoring to the broader enterprise AI environment.
Michael Versace, Research Director for Governance, Resilience and Compliance at Chartis, noted: “By combining these capabilities with its deep expertise in regulated industries, SAS is in a position to demonstrate AI as a growth strategy for clients and prospects.”
What is AI Governance?
AI governance is what organisations do to accelerate innovation, manage risk and ensure AI is trustworthy. It is an all-encompassing strategy that establishes AI oversight, ensures compliance and develops consistent operations and infrastructure within an organisation. It begins with an organisational culture centered on human needs, then scales through robust operational tools for transparency, proactive regulatory compliance and consistent, systemic oversight.
Strong AI governance builds trust with customers, regulators and internal stakeholders such as boards of directors and employees. Organisations with robust AI governance frameworks are better positioned to strengthen trust in AI-driven decisions and confidently manage AI risks. Without AI governance, organisations face increased risk of legal penalties, reputational damage from biased or opaque AI decisions, operational inefficiencies, and lack of stakeholder trust in their brand.
Townsend added: “The biggest risk to any AI governance program isn't regulation; it's a tool so complex that no one uses it. SAS AI Navigator was designed to make the path to responsible AI irresistible.”
How SAS Supports AI Governance
With decades of governance experience, SAS supports AI governance with capabilities embedded throughout SAS software and in a comprehensive product portfolio for all areas of governance, risk and compliance. Users can perform model risk management, model interpretability, bias detection and mitigation, data masking and more.
SAS AI Navigator is a standalone SaaS solution that works for both new and existing SAS customers. It is the latest addition to a growing portfolio of SAS AI governance offerings designed to meet organisations where they are in their AI maturity. The announcement was made at SAS Innovate, the company’s global data and AI conference, where SAS marked 50 years of innovation. The event was supported by partner sponsors including Microsoft, Intel and Amazon Web Services.
Organisations interested in a private preview of SAS AI Navigator can apply via the SAS website.
