2025 wrapped: The AI innovations powering Diligent Boards into the new year
You’ve been busy this year — pulling together materials, finding the insights that matter and helping your board make the decisions that keep things moving. Diligent Boards helped you cut through the time-consuming stuff, turning what used to take hours into quick wins and making your meetings actually productive.
If your year looked a bit different because you aren't yet a Diligent customer - we should chat. With 2026 just around the corner, the trends shaping governance will demand more speed, sharper insights and stronger security. What’s driving this shift? AI is fundamentally changing the way governance works.
Let’s take a look at how Diligent led the way in 2025.
From prep to record in hours, not days: GovernAI Suite
Board prep used to take weeks. Now it takes hours. The GovernAI Suite brings together six smart modules that do the heavy lifting for governance teams — pulling documents into one place, spotting risks before meetings and turning complex packs into clear, actionable content. Here’s what they make possible:
- Smart Builder: Stop starting from scratch. Instead of spending hours compiling and formatting board decks, Smart Builder creates polished presentations automatically. Upload your documents, spreadsheets, or PDFs and get a ready-to-use deck in minutes. Throughout 2025, we added features like CSV/XLSX uploads, multilingual support and a rich text editor — all with one‑click templates and direct sync from Boards to keep setup fast without losing control.
- Smart Risk Scanner: Catch risks before they enter the boardroom. Scan board materials for legal, compliance and operational risks — from litigation and breaches to incomplete disclosures — with clear explanations and direct links for review.
- Smart Summary & Smart Prep: Cut through complexity and walk into every meeting prepared.Turn dense packs into board-ready summaries with strategic insights, key themes and discussion prompts — so directors spend time making decisions, not digging for details.
- Smart Minutes: Never start with a blank page again. Generate meeting minutes from notes or transcripts, export with custom Word templates and keep action items on track with automated reminders. Voice-matching options ensure minutes sound like you, look like yours and save you hours.
- Smart News: Stay ahead of what matters. Deliver curated industry, peer and market insights straight to leadership — so boards never miss trends that could shape strategy.
GovernAI transformed the board cycle in 2025, giving teams the clarity and speed to focus on decisions that mattered. Curious how it works? Find out more and learn about the free 30-day trial here.
AI-powered Diligent Data Room that makes due diligence faster,cleaner and completely under your control
When you’re preparing for a capital raise, managing M&A due diligence, compiling board materials, or keeping sensitive files organized, the Diligent Data Room gives you a secure, centralized space to store and share critical documents. It’s built for speed and control — so legal teams, CFOs and boards can navigate high-stakes transactions and everyday governance without the risk or delays.
- Close deals faster: AI summaries cut review time from weeks to days by helping teams, legal counsel and investors quickly assess document relevance and extract key details.
- Stay in control: Detailed engagement insights show who’s viewing and downloading documents, so you can prioritize follow-ups and keep transparency front and center.
- Protect sensitive information and enforce compliance: Custom watermarks and mandatory NDAs make every document traceable and every viewer accountable — reducing risk and keeping compliance airtight.
From startup to IPO and beyond: Your governance playbook, built by experts
Scaling a company means navigating new challenges at every stage — and governance is no exception. With 600+ resources, the Education & Templates Library helps teams build governance, risk and compliance expertise and enhance board leadership.
Inside you’ll find:
- 600+ curated courses, templates, videos and CPD-accredited certifications
- “Board in a Box” learning tracks with 50+ practical resources for private companies
- Growth-stage modules covering fundraising, M&A and IPO readiness
- Timely content on AI governance and cybersecurity oversight
- 23 board resolution templates plus ready-to-use agendas and minutes
Whether you’re scaling fast or managing complex compliance programs, these resources make it easier to stay ahead and build governance that lasts.
Board-ready financials, straight from NetSuite
Finance teams shouldn’t spend hours reformatting data for the board — especially when preparing investor updates or gearing up for a capital raise or exit. With our NetSuite integration, cash, AR and AP data flow directly into trusted board-ready reports — no manual work, no chasing spreadsheets. That means less time on formatting and more time on strategy.
Institutional-grade market intelligence, delivered where your board already works
Directors need market context to make informed decisions — but hunting for data slows everything down. With S&P Global Market Intelligence embedded in Boards, your team gets access to:
- Peer comparisons and benchmarks
- Stock performance and key market developments
- Analyst targets and earnings sentiment
Strong governance can’t wait for a desktop — now it doesn’t have to
With mobile-optimized questionnaires, directors can complete D&O disclosures, conflict-of-interest forms and board assessments from any device — no pinching or zooming required. Annual cycles stay on track and you stay in control, whether you’re in transit or between meetings.
Ready to go mobile? Download the Diligent Boards app from Google Play or the App Store and keep governance moving wherever you are.
The next chapter of AI innovations
2025 was a year of bold moves and measurable impact— and those innovations set the stage for the trends shaping governance in 2026.
Governance teams didn’t just work faster — they made better decisions with less manual grind. And across Diligent, we delivered innovations that raised the bar for governance:
- AI innovations at scale: GovernAI helped boards turn scattered documents into polished decks, flag risks before meetings and generate branded minutes in hours, not days. AI Risk Essentials helped teams launch enterprise risk programs in just 7 days, benchmarking against 120,000+ real-world risks from SEC filings — with board‑ready heatmaps for fast reporting.
- Entity management reimagined: Diligent Entities delivered 318% ROI, 90% cost reduction and 70% time saved on data tasks with automated reporting and AI-driven document summarization.
- Audit innovation: ACL AI Studio introduced analytics that use AI to recommend tests, analyze millions of records and log every prompt for transparency.
- Acquisitions that strengthened compliance: Spark Compliance joined Diligent in February, bringing award-winning advisory services. Vault Platform followed in May, adding speak-up and investigations capabilities that use AI to route reports, manage cases and surface insights — now powering programs for global leaders like OVO Energy and Neptune Energy.
- Industry recognition: Diligent was named a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Governance, Risk and Compliance Tools — making us the only GRC provider recognized as a Leader by all five top analysts: Gartner, Chartis, Forrester, IDC and Verdantix.
- Customer-backed. TrustRadius approved: Diligent Boards was named Top Rated in Board Management and Diligent One Platform in Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC). Earned solely through authentic, verified reviews from our customers — the people who rely on our products every day to drive better governance, compliance and risk oversight.
2026 is all about building on this momentum: Deeper AI workflows, tighter integrations and experiences that put strategy first. In the year ahead, expect more speed, more insight and more impact — all built into the platform you trust to automate the grind and free you to focus on decisions that count.
Why Gartner named Diligent a Leader
Discover how Diligent helps teams surface risks faster, align reporting and act with confidence — and why we stand out for both execution and vision.
Get the reportReady to explore?
If you’re already a Diligent customer, log in today and start using these capabilities. Need help? Your customer success manager is ready to guide you.
Not yet a customer? Request a demo and see how Diligent can transform your governance workflows.
Getting started FAQs
What’s live now? All features are now available in your Diligent Boards platform today. Some capabilities require Diligent One Platform or specific Board Leadership Collaboration packages — reach out to your Customer Success Manager to confirm and activate the right solutions.
Do I need to set anything up? Some features, like reminders or Smart Builder access, may require admin configuration.
Where can I find training or templates? Visit the Education & Templates Library via the Boards interface.
Can I use these features on mobile? Yes. Download the Diligent Boards app from Google Play or the App Store to complete questionnaires, access board materials and keep governance moving wherever you are.
Not yet a Diligent customer? Request a demo and see these features in action.
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