Ashleigh Bickford and Gregory Leighton discuss the growing legal and operational challenges organizations face as technology, privacy and cybersecurity risks continue to evolve in 2026. They highlight how increased regulatory scrutiny, AI adoption and data governance obligations are reshaping compliance expectations across industries, particularly around privacy controls, vendor management and risk oversight. Bickford and Leighton emphasize that organizations must move beyond paper compliance and ensure their technology, privacy and security programs function effectively in practice to reduce litigation, enforcement and operational risk.