Spotlight

Report:

The Forrester Wave™: AI Governance Solutions, Q3 2025

How does Forrester define the AI Governance Solutions market in 2025?

AI governance solutions remove the bottlenecks to scale AI by providing sufficient capabilities to govern an inventory of AI assets and perform risk assessments. The state of a vendor's AI governance solution is the strongest indicator of how ready their tools are to support trusted and responsible AI. Leading tools enable enterprises to scale AI beyond a handful of use cases and risk concerns that governance-by-spreadsheet and committee limits them to. Enterprises use these tools to set standards for workflows, classify use risk, distribute development and ownership, undertake compliance audits, and remediation of audit failures.

Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: AI Governance Solutions, Q3 2025 in 2025

How did the AI Governance Solutions market evolve in 2025?

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

What are the common features of top products in the AI Governance Solutions space?

No common features specified.

Scope Exclusions

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting

Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates 10 AI governance solutions providers across their current offerings, strategy, and customer feedback. It covers vendors' capabilities in AI asset cataloging, policy management, compliance auditing, risk assessment, and governance workflows. The evaluation helps buyers understand how each vendor measures up in supporting trusted and responsible AI at scale.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: AI governance solutions customers should use this research when: 1) Scaling deployments with AI trust - enterprises seeking to scale release of models and applications to 50 or more per month need enablement and controls; 2) Reducing human tasks to govern AI - governance leaders seek tools that are intuitive, simple, and automate AI governance tasks; 3) Addressing third-party AI trust - evaluating risk assessment capabilities for third-party AI providers and embedded AI acquisitions.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: Vendors must have: 1) Market presence in product and competitive evaluations, being in the same competitive set when enterprises seek AI governance solutions; 2) A solution available for purchase that supports the overall AI governance program, enabling use cases across trusted and responsible AI, regulatory compliance, privacy, and security; 3) Mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients, with frequent mentions in inquiries, advisories, and consulting engagements; 4) Recognition from other vendors as a competitor in the space.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

A:

  • Capabilities released after the evaluation cut-off date of May 14, 2025
  • Insufficient market presence among enterprise clients
  • Lack of mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients
  • Incomplete solution that does not meet evaluation threshold
  • Vendor declined to participate in the full Forrester Wave evaluation process

Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?

A:

  • Scaling deployments with AI trust - enterprises seeking to scale release of models and applications to 50 or more per month need enablement and controls for workflows, risk classification, distributed development and ownership, compliance audits, and remediation
  • Reducing human tasks to govern AI - seek tools that are intuitive, simple, and automate AI governance tasks to avoid increasing stewardship burden
  • Addressing third-party AI trust - tools should help with risk assessment for third-party providers as well as internally developed AI capabilities with evaluation questionnaires, model cards, and independent review
  • Pay attention to the vendor's origin story and core expertise prior to embarking on AI governance
  • Consider whether the vendor started with governance as the core mission, which is the strongest predictor of completeness of capabilities and AI governance effectiveness

Q: How has the AI Governance Solutions market evolved in 2025?

A:

  • Enterprises seeking to scale release of models and applications to 50 or more per month need enablement and controls
  • Governance roles, specifically within data and analytics, are augmenting responsibilities to support AI governance
  • AI governance leaders seek tools that are intuitive, simple, and automate AI governance tasks
  • Enterprises increase the acquisition of genAI models, AI agents, and embedded AI
  • Starting with governance as the core mission is the strongest predictor of a vendor's completeness of capabilities, AI governance effectiveness, and roadmap of flexible features
  • Vendors entering the market from different origins: compliance, security, data governance, or as newcomers with AI governance as core mission

Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?

A: Strength of Offering evaluates the current capabilities and features of a vendor's AI governance solution, including technical capabilities like AI asset catalogs, observability, policy management, compliance audits, and user experience. Strength of Strategy evaluates the vendor's future direction and market approach, including their vision for AI governance, innovation capacity, product roadmap, partner ecosystem development, market adoption, and pricing models.

Reference

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