As organizations begin planning for 2027, compliance leaders are balancing growing expectations with limited resources. AI governance, evolving regulations, and increased board scrutiny are reshaping the risk landscape, making it more important than ever to build budgets that align with business priorities.
In LRN's recent webinar, Planning Your 2027 Compliance Budget, moderator Neil Magenheim joined Cricket Snyder, Chief Compliance Officer at the Jefferson County Commission, and Shirley Zhang, Global Compliance Director, to discuss how compliance leaders can demonstrate value, prioritize investments, and prepare for what's next.
Watch the on-demand webinar below to hear the full discussion.
Build your budget around risk
The speakers emphasized that compliance budgets should reflect an organization's evolving risks rather than simply carrying forward historical spending. From AI governance to third-party risk, today's compliance leaders must prioritize investments where they will have the greatest business impact.
Frameworks like LRN's Compliance Program Effectiveness (CPE) Assessment can help organizations benchmark program maturity, identify gaps, and support more strategic budget conversations with executive leadership.
Bring compliance into the conversation early
"Compliance officers, talk with your business leaders."
– Shirley Zhang
Shirley encouraged compliance leaders to engage business stakeholders well before budgets are finalized. Early collaboration helps identify risks, align investments with strategic priorities, and position compliance as a trusted business partner.
Focus on impact, not activity
"Activity represents what you did. Impact represents what changed."
– Neil Magenheim
That distinction became one of the webinar's defining themes. While metrics like training completion rates and policy acknowledgements remain important, executives increasingly want to understand how compliance reduces risk, influences business decisions, and supports organizational performance.
Tools like LRN Catalyst Reveal Analytics help compliance leaders move beyond activity metrics by surfacing trends, identifying emerging risks, and demonstrating measurable program effectiveness.
Use technology to scale your program
As compliance responsibilities continue to grow, technology can help teams do more with limited resources. Modern compliance platforms enable organizations to streamline learning, policy management, reporting, investigations, and governance while providing better visibility into program performance.
An integrated approach allows compliance teams to spend less time on administrative work and more time partnering with the business to address emerging risks.
Compliance is a strategic business partner
The webinar reinforced that today's compliance leaders are expected to do more than meet regulatory requirements. They help organizations strengthen culture, support enterprise risk management, enable responsible innovation, and build trust with leadership.
Organizations that combine risk-based budgeting with the right technology are better positioned to demonstrate value and adapt to an increasingly complex regulatory environment.
Watch the on-demand webinar to hear more practical advice from Cricket Snyder and Shirley Zhang, and learn how leading organizations are preparing for the future of compliance.