What Your Security and Trust Program Needs to Look Like in 2026

Recently, I spoke with Ashley Hyman, VP of Customer Experience at Drata, to talk candidly about how security and compliance are changing - not in theory, but in practice.

We explored what we are both seeing firsthand with customers: how compliance is evolving beyond checkbox exercises, how AI is reshaping day-to-day security work, and how the ability to demonstrate trust is increasingly tied to revenue outcomes and customer confidence.

Although our platforms solve different problems, the themes that kept emerging were consistent. Teams are under pressure to move faster, environments are changing constantly, and point-in-time assurance is no longer enough. What is taking its place is a more continuous model - one focused on readiness, visibility, and confidence that holds up every day, not just during audits.

Based on those conversations, this is what a modern security and trust program needs to look like in 2026.

Continuous visibility replaces point-in-time assurance

One of the clearest themes that came up was the limitation of traditional, audit-driven approaches to security and compliance. Frameworks can prove alignment during a specific window, but they do not reflect how environments actually behave day to day.

As Ashley put it: "Compliance frameworks are an essential starting point, but they are a snapshot in time." They show that controls existed when evidence was collected, not whether they are still effective now.

Teams adopting continuous approaches describe a very different experience. Ashley shared feedback from a customer that captures this perfectly: "I love when a test turns red because I did not want to wait six months until my next audit to have them point it out."

Instead of waiting months to uncover gaps, issues surface as they happen. Rather than pulling screenshots and reports on demand, teams have ongoing signals showing whether controls are working as environments change. That shift fundamentally changes how teams manage risk, giving them earlier visibility and more control.

Compliance becomes the baseline, not the goal

Compliance plays an essential role, but it was never designed to stand alone.

When teams optimize solely for audit outcomes, they risk losing sight of the underlying purpose: building a security program that actually holds up in real conditions. This is especially true in cloud environments, where new services, APIs, or subdomains can appear between audits without ever being in scope.

Attackers don’t care if the right boxes have been ticked. They’re looking for weaknesses. Quarterly scans conducted to satisfy audit requirements can leave long windows of exposure as environments change rapidly.

In more mature programs, compliance is treated as the baseline. It establishes minimum expectations, while continuous security fills the gap between audits, ensuring controls do not just exist, but remain effective.

AI accelerates understanding, not accountability

AI came up repeatedly in our conversation, but always with a clear emphasis on responsibility.

Ashley was explicit about how Drata thinks about AI, and our view at Intruder is exactly the same: "AI is not for removing people. It is for empowering people."

The role of AI is to eliminate repetitive, error-prone work and surface actionable insights, not to replace human judgment. That might mean drafting first-pass answers to security questionnaires, summarizing vulnerabilities for non-technical stakeholders, or highlighting which issues actually require attention.

This distinction matters more in security than in many other functions. Relying on AI output without validation can introduce real risk, particularly in complex or fast-changing environments.

That’s why human oversight remains central. AI can be really effective at explaining vulnerabilities, aiding remediation, and prioritizing issues, but it still requires people to make sure advice is accurate and appropriate for their environment.

Proactive security replaces scrambling with calm

How teams respond when something changes is one of the clearest indicators of continuous security.

Reactive programs are defined by escalation. A new vulnerability hits the headlines. Someone asks, "Are we affected?" And the answer requires investigation, coordination, and time.

Continuous programs look different. New vulnerabilities appear daily, so waiting for the next scheduled scan is not enough. When security is continuous, teams already know their exposure or can determine it immediately, and move straight to remediation if needed.

This shift has an emotional dimension as well. Instead of panic, teams describe confidence, which shows up as the ability to respond without scrambling.

Trust becomes a business driver, not a bottleneck

Perhaps the most significant change we discussed is how security and compliance are perceived by the rest of the business.

Historically, these functions were seen as blockers. Sales teams waited on questionnaires. Deals slowed down. 

That narrative is changing. I shared an anecdote about a customer who said that "security has become the fastest part of their sales cycle" thanks to their continuous security posture and compliance automation. When proof is ready at the start of a conversation, not assembled at the end, friction disappears.

Ashley described how a customer refers to the Drata Trust Center as "business-critical. It literally moves deals forward." When compliance is continuous and transparent, security stops appearing as a bottleneck in sales cycles. Instead, it empowers teams to proactively share their security posture and evidence, building trust before questions even arise.

Security and compliance stop being defensive functions and start acting as enablers, because confidence is built into how the organization operates.

Confidence on repeat

The benefits of a continuous approach to security and compliance are hard to ignore. It reduces friction, removes last-minute fire drills, and gives teams constant clarity about where they stand. Trust becomes easier to build, easier to demonstrate, and easier to use as a competitive differentiator.

What matters to buyers is not how many frameworks a company complies with, but whether the principles underpinning them are practiced every day. When you make that easy to demonstrate, trust follows.

Establishing customer confidence and trust is not a one-off event, it's a repeatable state.

Achieve confidence on repeat with Intruder + Drata. Learn more.