Welcome to Anekanta® AI Insights – AI Governance Newsletter – October 2026
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Welcome to the October 2026 edition of Anekanta® AI Insights – AI governance newsletter for enterprise business leaders focused on AI strategy, risk, literacy and governance.
Agentic AI has moved firmly onto the enterprise agenda. Businesses are looking at AI agents to reduce administrative friction, coordinate complex workflows, increase productivity and extend automation across systems.
The opportunity is significant. So are the questions about authority, oversight, accountability and control.
Meanwhile, in the real world, these agents will not be deployed into perfect digital environments. They will encounter legacy systems, cloud platforms, operational technology, manual workarounds, external suppliers and, in some organisations, paper processes that have survived several generations of digital transformation.
In this month’s edition, we cover:
- Feature Article: AI Agents in the Real World — How to Stay in Control.
- Regulatory Watch: Agentic AI moves onto the formal regulatory agenda.
- Practical Q&A: Does it matter if content was created using AI?
- From the Podium: What we learned from our latest ISACA London Chapter AI Governance workshop.
- Upcoming Event: AI in UK healthcare with ACCA on 2 November.
Feature Article: AI Agents in the Real World — How to Stay in Control
AI agents promise something businesses have wanted for decades: greater automation across complex processes without requiring a person to manage every individual step.
They can gather information, select and use tools, coordinate tasks, monitor events and take actions in pursuit of an objective.
This capability opens up opportunities far beyond customer-service chatbots and office productivity tools. AI agents could operate across supply chains, finance, maintenance, software development, infrastructure and operational environments.
It also changes the governance conversation.
Recent incidents involving AI agents during OpenAI cybersecurity evaluations demonstrated what can happen when capability, delegated authority and an enabling environment come together in unexpected ways. Subsequent investigation by METR, analysis by the UN-established Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and separate findings published by Anthropic have added considerably more evidence to the discussion.
Our latest article looks at the opportunity, the potential traps and the governance questions organisations should be considering as AI agents move into operational use.
Read: AI Agents in the Real World — How to Stay in Control
Regulatory Watch: Agentic AI Enters the Governance Agenda
The regulatory position around agents is beginning to take shape.
On 8 October, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office opened a call for evidence on agentic AI, covering data security, transparency, accountability, automated decision-making, fairness, purpose limitation and lawful processing. The consultation closes on 20 November 2026 and will inform future ICO guidance.
The ICO has also confirmed enquiries with AI developers and testing organisations concerning recent agentic AI incidents.
In Europe, the European Commission’s AI Act Service Desk has clarified that there is no separate category of “AI agent” within the EU AI Act. AI agents will generally be covered by the Act’s existing definitions and requirements according to the system, intended purpose, use and risk classification.
The Commission also acknowledges that the distinction between an individual AI agent and more complex agentic AI, potentially involving multiple coordinated agents, is still developing.
For businesses this reinforces the importance of understanding the whole system rather than concentrating solely on the underlying model.
Practical Q&A: Does it Matter if Content was Created Using AI?
This question came up during a recent workshop and prompted an interesting discussion.
Does it matter that AI was involved if a competent professional reviews the work and takes responsibility for it?
For many routine internal activities, the use of AI may have little bearing on the eventual output where a competent person has properly reviewed, corrected and accepted responsibility for the work.
Other contexts deserve greater scrutiny.
Examples of where AI provenance matters include:
- legislation or regulation creates a transparency requirement;
- an output influences an individual’s rights, opportunities or access to services;
- safety or significant financial consequences are involved;
- professional standards or contractual requirements apply;
- knowing that AI was used could reasonably affect how somebody relies upon the information.
The EU AI Act’s Article 50 transparency provisions already apply in defined circumstances. They do not create a universal requirement to label every document, email or analysis in which AI has played some part.
For organisations developing their own policies, the useful question is therefore how AI involvement affects reliance, accountability, provenance and risk in the particular context.
From the Podium: AI Governance from Principles to Practice with ISACA London Chapter
In September we delivered another successful workshop with ISACA London Chapter.
The full-day session brought together professionals responsible for technology, risk, governance and major organisational systems.
Rather than spending the day comparing governance frameworks, we explored how AI actually behaves and what this means for organisations putting it into practice.
Live experiments and case studies covered model variability, probabilistic behaviour, anthropomorphic responses, human oversight and the growing capabilities of agentic AI. We also examined recent cybersecurity incidents and the distinction between what an AI system is capable of doing and what it has been authorised to do.
The discussion reflected a wider shift we are seeing in organisations.
Questions are becoming much more practical:
- Can we rely on this output?
- Who signs it off?
- How much authority can we delegate?
- When should AI use be disclosed?
- Where does human judgment still matter?
- How do we evidence the decisions we have made?
This is where AI literacy and governance meet. People need enough understanding of the technology to make informed decisions about its use, limitations and control.
Anekanta® delivers AI Literacy and Governance workshops for boards, senior leaders and enterprise teams, tailored to organisational roles, technology use and risk.
Upcoming: AI in UK Healthcare — ACCA Talking Series for Health
On Monday 2 November, 12:00–13:00, Anekanta® Founder and CEO Pauline Norstrom will lead an interactive session for ACCA UK’s Talking Series for Health.
The webinar will explore the impact of AI across the UK healthcare sector, including:
- current and emerging AI applications;
- the regulatory environment;
- governance and ethical considerations;
- the importance of appropriate human oversight; and
- real-world examples of AI adoption.
The session has been developed with members of ACCA’s Health Sector Panel and is designed for finance professionals considering both the opportunities and governance implications of AI in healthcare.
ACCA members can register for the session through ACCA.
Bringing AI Strategy, Risk, Literacy and Governance Together
AI agents provide a useful illustration of the challenge facing organisations more broadly.
Technology capability is advancing quickly. The business opportunity is real. Governance has to operate in the same environment as the technology rather than following afterwards.
That requires organisations to understand their AI estate, define intended purpose and authority, develop appropriate AI literacy, establish cross-functional ownership and create governance capable of supporting innovation rather than slowing it down.
Anekanta® works with boards, senior leaders and enterprise organisations on:
- AI strategy and risk;
- AI discovery and evaluation;
- AI literacy and governance;
- EU AI Act readiness and high-risk AI;
- ISO/IEC 42001 preparation; and
- Agentic AI strategy, risk and governance.
Talk to Anekanta® about building AI governance that works in the real world.
About Anekanta®
Anekanta® was established in 2016. Since 2020, we have developed specialist AI strategy, risk, literacy and governance services for boards, senior leaders and organisations developing and deploying AI.
Our 12 Principles of AI Governance were developed specifically for board-level application and pre-date ISO/IEC 42001. The framework has been recognised through international and UK initiatives and continues to underpin our approach to accountable, measurable AI governance.
Anekanta® has also developed specialist AI Risk Intelligence Systems™ featured by the OECD and UK Government, for high-risk AI, biometrics and EU AI Act readiness, supporting our work across system classification, impact, risk and assurance.
Our focus is practical: helping organisations connect AI opportunity with the governance, evidence and executive decision-making required to adopt it with confidence.
The Anekanta® Team
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