Information Governance in the Age of AI: Mitigating Risks and Driving Innovation

As Artificial Intelligence revolutionises legal practice and organisational operations, robust Information Governance (IG) is essential for managing the associated risks and complexities. Effective IG enables organisations to address key challenges, including data privacy, cybersecurity, AML/CTF compliance, and adherence to lawyers' duties under the Legal Profession Uniform Law. In this session, Dr Susan Bennett will discuss how IG enables law firms and legal teams to harness AI’s potential while mitigating risks. Attendees will gain insights into best-practice governance structures and actionable strategies to ensure compliance, foster client trust, and drive sustainable innovation in a dynamic and evolving landscape.

• Best practice IG to leverage information as a valuable asset using data-driven technology and AI.
• How the IG umbrella aligns policies, technology and people to reduce risks and enable safe and reliable organisational innovation.
• How IG builds effective and efficient regulatory compliance for privacy, cybersecurity, AML/CTF, and the Legal Profession Uniform Law.
• How to align IG with overarching risk management and improve overall data and information reporting to executive and risk committees, and the board.
• Overcoming obstacles, building cross-functional collaboration and an information culture.
• Balancing AI-driven innovation and risk management to enhance.

Key Learnings

1. Understanding how robust IG reduces regulatory, ethical and operational risks while enabling innovation.
2. Steps to embed continuous and effective IG for improved compliance in an evolving regulatory environment and enable AI-driven opportunities and innovation.
3. Tools and frameworks for building effective IG and AI governance.
4. Strategies to align IG with broader organisational goals, risk frameworks, and reporting structures.
5. Practical steps to align IG with organisational AI innovation strategy and operations.
6. Essential tips for fostering a resilient, forward-thinking information culture in the age of AI.

About Susan

Dr Susan Bennett is the Founder and Executive Director of InfoGovANZ and Principal of Sibenco Legal & Advisory. Susan helps organisations implement best-practice holistic governance solutions that align data, information, privacy, and records, utilising cutting-edge technology to meet regulatory compliance obligations.

With over 30 years of experience as a lawyer and advisor, including as a former senior partner of a national law firm, Susan brings unique insights and expertise to help corporations, government agencies, universities, and professional service firms. In particular, Susan provides governance solutions to enable organisations to efficiently achieve regulatory compliance with evolving privacy, cybersecurity, AML and ESG laws.

Dr Bennett founded InfoGovANZ in 2016 to bring together professionals working across the data and information silos to collaborate and develop best practices aligning policies, people and technology to leverage data and reduce risks. InfoGovANZ has grown to over 2,500 members with a diverse community of professionals, including - Legal, Privacy, eDiscovery, Records and Information Management, Information and Data Governance, AI and Ethics, Cyber and Information Security, Risk and Compliance, and ESG - with a multi-disciplinary focus to collaborate and share best practices and promote global information governance innovation.

Susan completed her doctoral thesis at the University of Sydney, Law School on Privacy and Data Protection: the interaction of meta-regulation and information governance. Susan also holds a Master of Business Administration (UNSW) and a Master of Laws (Syd). She is a Certified Information Privacy Professional – Europe (CIPP/E), Certified Information Privacy Professional Technologist (CIPT), a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), a Fellow of the International Association of Privacy Practitioners (FIP) and a Fellow of the Governance Institute of Australia (FGIA).