79% of company execs say employees work around their AI governance policies

A Zapier-commissioned survey of 548 U.S. executives at companies with at least 500 employees found that although 91% report having AI governance policies, nearly four in five say employees bypass governance processes to deploy or modify AI workflows more quickly. Respondents described inconsistent enforcement, fragmented ownership, and a strategic divide between rapid deployment and fully validated governance, with 41% favoring an iterative approach even when compliance risks are involved. AI workflow failures have reportedly increased manual work or costs for 47% of organizations, caused customer-facing errors for 41%, and affected revenue for 26%, while 85% use AI in highly critical or mission-critical enterprise workflows. The report argues that policy documents and periodic audits alone are insufficient, particularly where governance responsibility varies across departments, and recommends embedding access controls, authentication, activity tracking, and defined accountability directly into AI workflow tools. It presents Zapier’s platform as a managed governance layer for controlling AI agents’ connections and permissions across integrated business applications.

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