PwC Global Compliance Survey 2025: Reinventing Compliance for Speed and Innovation

Overview of the PwC Global Compliance Survey 2025

PwC’s Global Compliance Survey 2025 presents a comprehensive analysis of how organizations worldwide are grappling with unprecedented regulatory complexity while simultaneously pursuing growth and transformation. Surveying 1,802 executives across 63 territories—including business leaders, Chief Compliance Officers, Chief Risk Officers, and Chief Audit Executives—this landmark study reveals that compliance has reached an inflection point where the traditional approach of treating it as a cost center is giving way to a new paradigm of compliance as a competitive differentiator.

The survey’s subtitle, “Moving faster: Reinventing compliance to speed up, not trip up,” captures the central tension organizations face. Global regulation, driven by myriad macro forces and crises, is adding unprecedented complexity and cost. Yet some organizations—described as “compliance pioneers”—have evolved their processes, technology, and talent models to not only mitigate risks but generate new insights that accelerate business performance. For more business intelligence analyses, explore our interactive library.

Compliance Survey 2025: Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Lead Priorities

The PwC compliance survey reveals that technology risks dominate the compliance priority landscape, with cybersecurity and data protection each cited as top-five priorities by 51% of respondents. This finding aligns with broader trends in digital risk management and reflects the growing recognition that technology-related compliance obligations touch virtually every aspect of modern business operations.

Corporate governance ranked third at 40%, potentially reflecting increased accountability with real penalties that board members, directors, and non-executive directors face across multiple jurisdictions. Anti-bribery and corruption, anti-money laundering, and fraud risks followed at 38%, a ranking that may reflect both the reinforcement of corporate conduct rules and an uptick in economic crime driven by broader economic pressures. Nearly 90% of survey respondents reported that their breadth of compliance responsibilities has increased in the last three years.

Environmental and sustainability regulations (30%), industry-specific regulation (30%), and financial management and reporting (29%) round out the top compliance priorities. The emergence of AI regulation at 28% signals a rapidly growing compliance domain that will likely climb higher in future surveys as EU AI Act implementation progresses and other jurisdictions follow with their own frameworks. These findings underscore the multidimensional nature of modern compliance obligations.

The Commercial Impact of Global Compliance Complexity

One of the most striking findings from the Global Compliance Survey 2025 is that 77% of respondents stated their company had been negatively impacted to some or a great extent by compliance complexity across several areas that drive growth. This creates an imperative for organizations to evolve their compliance functions from reactive cost centers into proactive capabilities that alleviate commercial friction and unlock value creation opportunities.

The survey identifies multiple channels through which compliance complexity undermines business performance: delayed product launches, slower market entry, increased operational costs, diverted management attention, and reduced confidence in pursuing strategic initiatives. For organizations operating across multiple jurisdictions, the cumulative impact of divergent regulatory requirements can create significant competitive disadvantages, particularly when competitors in less regulated markets can move faster and more freely.

However, the survey also documents a clear correlation between compliance maturity and commercial performance. Organizations that have invested in modernizing their compliance functions report better outcomes across multiple dimensions, including faster speed-to-market for new products, more effective risk-taking, and stronger stakeholder trust. This evidence base supports the business case for compliance transformation, positioning it not as a regulatory burden but as a strategic investment that enables faster, more confident decision-making.

Connected Compliance: Breaking Down Organizational Silos

The concept of “connected compliance” emerges from the PwC compliance research as a critical success factor for organizations managing complex regulatory environments. This approach emphasizes the integration of compliance activities across organizational boundaries—connecting compliance, risk management, internal audit, legal, and business functions to create a more coherent and efficient response to regulatory requirements.

The data strongly supports this connected approach: 59% of respondents cited greater confidence in compliance decision-making because of better coordination across functions. When compliance operates in silos, organizations face duplicated effort, inconsistent risk assessments, delayed information sharing, and gaps in coverage that can lead to both regulatory failures and missed business opportunities. Connected compliance addresses these inefficiencies by establishing shared frameworks, common data platforms, and coordinated governance structures.

Implementing connected compliance requires both organizational and technological change. On the organizational side, it demands clear accountability structures, cross-functional governance bodies, and a culture that values collaboration over territorial protection. Technologically, it requires integrated platforms that provide a common view of regulatory requirements, risk assessments, and compliance activities across the enterprise. Organizations that achieve this integration report not only better compliance outcomes but also more efficient use of resources and richer insights from their compliance data.

Technology Transformation in Global Compliance Functions

The Global Compliance Survey 2025 documents significant technology-driven improvements across compliance functions, with respondents reporting tangible benefits including better visibility of risks and risk management activities (64%), faster identification and proactive response to compliance issues (53%), higher quality and more insightful reporting (48%), and increased productivity and cost savings (43%). These metrics demonstrate that compliance technology investments are delivering measurable returns.

Digital transformation is not optional: 71% of respondents expect to undertake digital transformation initiatives over the next three years that require the support of compliance, and 41% need compliance support related to new business models. This means compliance functions must not only adopt technology for their own operations but also develop the capability to assess and manage the compliance implications of technology-driven business transformation across the enterprise.

AI represents both a transformative compliance tool and a new compliance challenge. While AI can enhance regulatory monitoring, automate routine compliance tasks, and improve the accuracy of risk assessments, it also creates new regulatory obligations under emerging AI governance frameworks. The survey suggests that organizations are still in early stages of AI adoption for compliance, with significant opportunity to leverage advanced analytics, natural language processing, and machine learning to manage the growing volume and complexity of regulatory requirements. For more on technology transformation, visit PwC’s Global CEO Survey.

Compliance Maturity: From Laggards to Pioneers

The PwC compliance survey reveals a striking maturity gap: only 7% of respondents currently consider themselves to be leading in compliance, yet 38% aim to be leading within three years. This ambition gap represents both an opportunity and a challenge—organizations must move quickly to close the distance between aspiration and reality, particularly as regulatory complexity continues to increase.

The survey identifies distinct characteristics that differentiate compliance pioneers from their peers. Leaders tend to have more integrated governance structures, greater technology adoption, stronger relationships between compliance and business functions, and more sophisticated approaches to talent management and development. Importantly, they also demonstrate a different mindset: viewing compliance as a strategic enabler rather than a regulatory cost, and investing accordingly in capabilities that generate business value beyond risk mitigation.

For organizations seeking to accelerate their compliance maturity, the survey suggests several priority actions: investing in technology platforms that enable connected compliance, developing talent with both regulatory expertise and business acumen, establishing metrics that demonstrate compliance’s contribution to business outcomes, and building relationships with regulators that enable constructive dialogue rather than purely reactive engagement. The journey from laggard to pioneer requires sustained commitment from senior leadership and clear alignment between compliance investment and broader business strategy. Browse more compliance analyses at our interactive content library.

Industry-Specific Compliance Challenges and Trends

The Global Compliance Survey 2025 reveals important industry-specific variations in compliance priorities and challenges. Financial services respondents (29% of the survey base) consistently prioritize anti-money laundering, anti-bribery, and financial crime compliance alongside cybersecurity, reflecting their heavily regulated operating environment and the systemic importance of compliance failures in this sector.

Energy, utilities, and resources companies uniquely placed environmental and sustainability compliance as their top priority, ahead of cybersecurity and data privacy. This difference reflects not only the complex sustainability regulations these companies face but also their critical role in supporting energy transition across industries. The EU’s Green Deal, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) create particularly intensive compliance obligations for this sector.

Technology, media, and telecommunications companies face a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape as jurisdictions worldwide introduce new frameworks for AI governance, platform accountability, content moderation, and digital services. PwC’s CEO Survey found that almost 40% of CEOs said their companies started competing in new sectors in the last five years, creating cross-industry compliance challenges as organizations must navigate regulatory requirements from multiple industry frameworks simultaneously.

Talent and Culture: The Human Side of Compliance Transformation

Beyond technology and processes, the PwC compliance research emphasizes the critical importance of talent and culture in driving compliance effectiveness. As compliance responsibilities expand in scope and complexity—with nearly 90% of respondents reporting increased breadth of compliance responsibilities over three years—organizations face growing challenges in attracting, developing, and retaining compliance professionals with the right skills.

The modern compliance professional needs a fundamentally different skill set than their predecessors. Technical regulatory knowledge remains essential, but it must be supplemented by data analytics capabilities, technology fluency, business acumen, and communication skills that enable effective stakeholder engagement. The survey highlights that developing these hybrid capabilities is a priority for organizations seeking to transform their compliance functions from reactive rule-checkers to proactive business advisors.

Compliance culture extends beyond the compliance function itself, encompassing how the entire organization approaches regulatory obligations, ethical standards, and risk management. The survey findings suggest that organizations with strong compliance cultures—where compliance is viewed as everyone’s responsibility rather than a specialized function—achieve better outcomes across both regulatory compliance and business performance metrics. Building this culture requires visible leadership commitment, aligned incentive structures, and consistent messaging about the strategic value of compliance.

Future of Compliance: Strategic Recommendations and Outlook

The Global Compliance Survey 2025 concludes with a compelling vision for the future of compliance that transcends traditional risk mitigation to encompass value creation, competitive advantage, and organizational resilience. The data strongly supports the thesis that compliance, when properly resourced and strategically positioned, can accelerate rather than constrain business performance.

Key strategic recommendations emerging from the survey include: first, invest in technology platforms that enable real-time risk visibility, automated monitoring, and connected compliance across organizational boundaries. Second, build compliance talent models that combine regulatory expertise with data analytics, technology, and business skills. Third, establish governance structures that position compliance as a strategic advisor to the business rather than an after-the-fact reviewer. Fourth, develop metrics and reporting frameworks that demonstrate compliance’s contribution to business outcomes, supporting continued investment and organizational commitment.

The compliance function of the future, as envisioned by PwC’s research, operates as a strategic partner that helps organizations navigate complexity at speed, take risk intelligently, and build the trust that underpins sustainable business success. Achieving this vision requires a fundamental shift in how organizations think about compliance—from a cost of doing business to a competitive advantage that enables faster, more confident action in an increasingly regulated world. For organizations that make this transformation successfully, compliance becomes not a barrier to innovation but an enabler that provides the confidence and capability to move faster than competitors while maintaining the trust of customers, regulators, and other stakeholders. See more global survey analyses in our interactive library.