New OneTrust CEO on Why AI Governance Market Is Set to Surge

OneTrust tapped the ex-leader of Snap One as its next CEO and tasked him with establishing guardrails to safely adopt artificial intelligence technologies.

See Also: AI or Data Governance? Gartner Says You Need Both

The Atlanta-based AI governance vendor will lean on John Heyman to develop systems capable of tracking AI activity, monitoring data flows, and managing risk across internal and third-party technologies. Heyman believes OneTrust’s existing expertise in privacy, consent and risk management will provide a foundation for addressing these governance challenges.

“At the beginning of 2025, companies didn’t have a single generative AI agent in production in their business,” Heyman told Information Security Media Group. “By the end of last year, they had tens of agents. If you fast forward to the end of 2026, they’ll have hundreds, if not thousands of agents running in their business.”

Prior to joining OneTrust, Heyman spent nearly 11 years as CEO of smart living distributor Snap One and six years as CEO of hospitality and retail technology provider Radiant Systems, prior to its acquisition by NCR in 2011. Heyman replaces Kabir Barday, who served as OneTrust’s CEO since its inception in 2016 and will remain a board member (see: Why AI Data Governance Is Now a Business Imperative).

“It was really important to me that I feel like I could work really well with Kabir because he has so much market knowledge and is so respected by both the market but also our people” Heyman said.

How AI Governance Extends Existing Governance Challenges

AI agents may be deployed by internal IT teams, business units and embedded in third-party software tools. Heyman said organizations must maintain visibility and control over how AI systems operate, what data they access and how they interact with other systems. The rapid deployment of AI tools means companies are now adopting technologies faster than traditional governance frameworks can track.

“You’re going to have data that becomes more transparent and more shareable, and you’re not going to be able to keep up without technology,” Heyman said.

Heyman said tracking how AI agents’ access data resembles traditional privacy monitoring and managing data sharing through AI agents relates closely to consent and compliance frameworks. Because OneTrust already provides software solutions in these areas, the company has a leg up in AI governance.

“Some of the same muscles you build and things you need inside your core systems are very similar to what you need with privacy, consent and risk,” Heyman said. “If you watch what companies are trying to do with AI and you think about third-party risk, that’s very similar to some of the things we have to look at with AI governance and the different agents that are being used inside your company.”

The introduction of AI increases the amount of data being processed, analyzed and shared since AI relies on large datasets to generate insights, automate decisions, or interact with users. As companies integrate these tools into their products and operations, they gain unprecedented access to personal information, which Heyman said will elevate privacy concerns for both organizations and consumers.

Why Data Privacy and Data Security Are Converging

Privacy management tools traditionally focus on regulatory compliance and consent management while data security products focus on protecting information from breaches or unauthorized access. But as organizations attempt to manage sensitive data across complex digital environments, Heyman said organizations must address privacy obligations and security risks simultaneously.

“Privacy is going to be more important than ever because of what companies will try to do with your personal information,” Heyman said. “Whether or not that’s regulated is inconsequential, because customers will trust brands who they know will protect their privacy. Because your privacy is at more risk than ever before, it’s going to be more important for companies to protect that.”

Heyman believes OneTrust must invest in scalable infrastructure that supports both employees and customers such as knowledge-based systems that allow teams to quickly access product information and troubleshooting resources. Such infrastructure ensure that customers find the company easier to work with over time rather than experiencing declining service as the organization scales, Heyman said.

“Growth is all dependent on the people and processes you put in place and orienting them to make sure they’re providing value and making the company really easy to do business with if you’re a customer,” Heyman said. “It’s really important to put in place our own technology and our own processes so we can scale with that growth and actually become easier to do business with.”

Heyman vowed that customer success metrics will influence how every team operates from product development and sales to implementation and support, since each group contributes to the overall customer experience and should focus on delivering user value.

“The number one metric I’d say that I will focus on is some very strong measure of customer satisfaction,” Heyman said. “The culture I want to make sure we keep front and center is it’s our job to make the customer and the person who selected OneTrust inside our customers’ organization more successful than they aspire to be when they picked our product.”