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GRC Intelligence takes the stage at CRX '26. ON THIS PAGE "GRC, as we know it, is no longer enough." That was the message Optro CEO Raul Villar Jr. brought to the stage at CRX '26, where leaders, practitioners, and innovators gathered to explore the evolving world of GRC. As AI transforms how organizations operate and risks become increasingly complex, the demands on GRC teams are changing, too. The executive keynote centered on the introduction of GRC Intelligence, Optro's system that helps organizations move beyond documenting risk to understanding it and taking action. Through a series of product announcements and demonstrations, the Optro leadership team showed how a trusted system of record, an intelligent system of action, and human oversight can work together to transform how GRC gets done. GRC Intelligence: The next evolution of GRC. For years, GRC technology has helped organizations collect information, document controls, manage workflows, and report on what happened. Those capabilities remain essential, but the demands on GRC teams have changed, as Raul described. Organizations are navigating increasingly complex risks, new regulations, and the rapid adoption of AI. Collecting information isn't enough. Teams must parse why the information is significant and determine how to take action. This shift led Optro to introduce GRC Intelligence. Rather than simply adding AI capabilities to existing workflows, GRC Intelligence connects two essential parts of the platform: * A trusted system of record: Connects the risks, controls, evidence, obligations, and vendors that give GRC teams a reliable foundation for their work. * An intelligent system of action: Uses AI agents that reason over an organization's specific policies, objectives, and GRC data to interpret information, execute tasks, and return results to the trusted system of record. Connecting these capabilities turns insight into action. For AI agents to deliver meaningful results, access to information isn't enough. They need accurate, structured data and a clear understanding of how the different parts of an organization's GRC program work together. And when agents act, every action must be traceable, reviewable, and accountable. GRC Intelligence Platform is built to help teams move beyond identifying risks and opportunities to act on them. From the CRX stage, GRC Intelligence became tangible. With the vision established, Optro's product leaders showed attendees how to put it into practice. Through a series of demonstrations, the team showed how agentic AI can support work across audit, risk, and compliance, from gathering evidence and testing controls to coordinating stakeholders and managing third-party risk. The common thread was straightforward: give AI the context and tools to take on more of the work, while giving professionals the visibility and control to oversee it. Agentic Compliance brings intelligence into the work. One capability introduced during the keynote was Agentic Compliance. Compliance teams spend considerable time manually gathering evidence, preparing for audits, and keeping information current across stakeholders and systems, leaving less time to identify and prevent issues. Agentic Compliance is designed to help shift that balance. By bringing AI agents into compliance workflows, Optro helps teams automate activities such as scoping, evidence gathering, and audit preparation, reducing the manual effort involved while maintaining human oversight. The significance goes beyond automating individual tasks. Within the GRC Intelligence Platform, agents can work within the context of an organization's controls, obligations, and existing evidence rather than treating each activity as a standalone request. That connection helps teams spend less time coordinating information and more time identifying gaps, evaluating emerging issues, and determining where action is needed. It's a practical expression of the larger idea introduced at CRX: intelligence becomes more useful when it can participate in the work itself, with professionals retaining the context and judgment to guide it. Agentic capabilities extend across GRC. Agentic Compliance is part of a broader set of capabilities showcased during the executive keynote. Autonomous Testing is an additional agentic capability that expands testing across all control types to deliver full population coverage, reduce manual effort, and free teams to focus on strategic, judgment-based work. Kieran Taylor demoed the new Autonomous Testing capability, with agents executing control testing procedures, examining supporting evidence, and identifying exceptions. One example involved tracing a variance in a financial reconciliation, with the agent documenting its findings in an exportable Excel workpaper. This illustrated how Autonomous Testing can take on detailed testing activities while preserving the evidence and documentation auditors need to review the results. The team also introduced additional capabilities across the platform: * Agentic Third-Party Risk Management: Streamlines vendor assessment workflows, including onboarding and due diligence tasks, helping teams assess risk more efficiently while maintaining control over policy and outcomes. * Agentic Stakeholder Management: Reduces evidence follow-up by helping preparers resolve gaps before submission, so teams can start testing sooner. * AURA Risk Assessment: Analyzes data and recommends evidence-backed risk scores, helping teams assess risk faster and prioritize work more consistently. Together, these announcements demonstrated how Optro brings intelligent assistance across GRC in one connected platform. Instead of siloed tools that solve isolated problems, these capabilities draw on shared information and integrate into the workflows teams already use. AI governance makes action accountable. The keynote also addressed a question that becomes increasingly important as organizations adopt AI: How do you govern the technology that's now doing more of the work? Guru Sethupathy brought that question into focus during the closing product presentation. As organizations deploy AI across their operations, they face two related responsibilities: governing the AI being introduced throughout the enterprise and ensuring that the AI agents working inside their GRC programs operate responsibly. Optro's expanded AI Governance capabilities, strengthened by the acquisition of FairNow, help organizations discover AI use, identify associated risks, and prioritize systems for human review. A unified inventory brings together AI introduced through vendors, employee use, and internally developed applications, giving organizations greater visibility into the technology operating across their businesses. That same approach to governance extends to the agents operating within the GRC Intelligence Platform, with actions logged, cited, and reviewable. As Guru emphasized, putting AI to work and governing its use are two sides of the same challenge. The more technology can do, the more human judgment matters. For all the technology introduced during the keynote, Optro's leadership returned to a distinctly human message. AI can gather information, execute testing procedures, identify exceptions, and coordinate work. But it doesn't eliminate the need for the expertise GRC professionals bring to their organizations. Professionals still determine risk appetite, establish guardrails, evaluate findings, and make decisions that require an understanding of business context and consequences. As technology takes on more operational work, teams have an opportunity to redirect their attention toward critical thinking, professional judgment, and advising the business. As Optro CMO April Crichlow reminded attendees, the growing presence of AI across organizations makes the role of GRC professionals more important, not less. AI may change how GRC work gets done, but the judgment behind the decisions remains firmly in human hands. CRX '26 offered a closer look at how GRC is evolving, from the introduction of GRC Intelligence to new agentic capabilities designed to help teams move from information to action. Across the executive keynote, one message remained clear: intelligent technology can take on more of the work, but trusted information and human judgment remain essential. See the GRC Intelligence vision unfold

Optro raises the bar on partner Investment with Growth Funding and expanded partner tracks. Published Oct 14, 2026, 07:30 AM Program expansion introduces Technology and Distributor tracks, Partner Growth Funding, and annual partner awards to accelerate growth and strengthen the global GRC ecosystem. SAN DIEGO, Oct. 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Optro, the leading AI-powered GRC Intelligence Platform, today announced significant enhancements to its global partner program, Optro Partner Connect. The updates include two new partner tracks, Partner Growth Funding (PGF), and the upcoming Optro Partner Connect Awards launching in 2027. The announcement was made at Optro's Partner Forum at CRX, its annual user conference taking place this year in San Diego. These updates reinforce Optro's commitment to building a collaborative, high-value ecosystem that empowers partners to scale while providing customers with seamless GRC Intelligence. Expanding the Ecosystem: New Program Tracks * Technology Partner Track: Designed for independent software vendors and developers, this two-tiered track provides API tools, sandbox access, and dedicated support to co-develop integrated workflows with Optro. These validated integrations automate data movement, accelerating time to value for customers. * Distributor Track: Tailored for large-scale aggregators, this track enables partners to anchor their catalogs with Optro's GRC Intelligence Platform while leveraging their existing credit and billing infrastructure. It simplifies global enterprise procurement by allowing customers to buy through local partners in native currencies with accredited delivery support. Fueling Investment and Innovation: Growth Funding & Annual Awards * Optro Partner Connect Partner Growth Funding (PGF): To help partners scale capabilities and demand generation, Optro is co-investing capital directly into partner-led marketing, enablement, and practice-building initiatives linked to joint strategic business plans. Partners in qualifying tiers may submit proposals for Optro funding. * Optro Partner Connect Awards: Launching in 2027, these annual awards will formally recognize partners driving exceptional growth, delivery excellence, and ecosystem innovation, celebrating top performers across Optro's global channels. "Being part of Optro's technology partner track gives us the access and support needed for our integration," said Frank Vukovits, Chief Security Scientist at Delinea Fastpath. "Now, critical IT general controls evidence, like segregation of duties analysis and user access reviews, flow directly from Delinea Fastpath into customer control libraries in Optro, so auditor requests can be answered directly from the platform." "As enterprises and public sector organizations across North America navigate increasingly complex compliance demands, having seamless procurement and trusted aggregation is vital," said Mike Allers, Vice President, Cybersecurity Business Development at TD SYNNEX. "Expanding our partnership with Optro through the new Distributor track allows TD SYNNEX to leverage our vast B2B network of VARs, system integrators, and service providers to scale Optro's GRC Intelligence Platform. Together, we are simplifying enterprise procurement and equipping thousands of resellers with the infrastructure and solutions needed to transform risk into opportunity." "Our partners are fundamental to our ability to solve complex GRC challenges for enterprises across the globe," said Jim Sperduto, Chief Growth Officer at Optro. "These new program tracks and investments through Partner Growth Funding reflect our focus on providing the resources, financial co-investment, and technical support our partners need to build profitable, differentiated practices with Optro's GRC Intelligence Platform." About Optro Optro (formerly AuditBoard) helps enterprises transform risk into opportunity through its AI-powered GRC Intelligence Platform. More than 50% of the Fortune 500 trust Optro to elevate audit, risk, and compliance in addressing a new era of risk. Optro is top-rated by customers on G2 and was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Tools, Assurance Leaders. To learn more, visit optro.ai. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

Optro unveils 2026 Connector Award winners Recognizing leaders in GRC Intelligence and AI innovation. Vom nachrichtendienst. 12 Okt, 2026, 13:00 GMT Artikel teilen. Annual awards honor audit, risk, and compliance teams driving real-time intelligence, operational resilience, and autonomous execution. SAN DIEGO, Oct. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Optro, the leading AI-powered GRC Intelligence Platform, today announced the winners of its 2026 Connector Awards program at CRX, its annual user conference in San Diego. The awards recognize the leaders who have partnered with Optro to drive innovation, transformation, and overcome challenges to achieve operational efficiency, scalability, and resilience. "I want to extend a huge congratulations to our 2026 Connector Award winners. Everything we do here at Optro centers around giving our customers the best possible experience," said Justin Greenberger, Chief Customer Officer at Optro. "The best part of my job is hearing about the transformative business results our customers achieve with Optro. This year's winners have raised the bar once again, combining cutting-edge AI, continuous monitoring, and a unified approach to risk management to set a new benchmark for how modern enterprises build resilience and agility." The winners of the 2026 Optro Connector Awards include: * Agentic Pioneer: Celebrating the trailblazers redefining GRC work with agentic AI - teams using Optro's Autonomous Testing as an active, agentic coworker to automate end-to-end workflows and move from sample-based checks to full-population testing. * Winner: Reddit "With Optro's agentic AI, we replaced fragmented tools and manual processes with one governed system." - Martin Preedy, Chief Audit Executive, Reddit * Visionary: Celebrating customers who push the boundaries of innovation with Optro, leveraging AI, Analytics, and integrations to set new standards and drive industry-wide change. * Winner: Fortive "With Optro, what began as a compliance transformation has evolved into a platform for innovation across our audit and controls ecosystem." - Marina Tieman and Mike Wilson, Senior Directors, Fortive Internal Audit * Excellence in Action: Recognizing customers who have achieved significant business impact - improving efficiency, driving growth, & surpassing goals using Optro. * Winner: GE Aerospace "Every lesson learned now gets built into the next audit because it lives in Optro." - Jan Murry, Strategic, Innovation, Enablement, and Digital Technology Internal Audit Executive, GE Aerospace * Bridge Builders: Highlighting customers who drive cross-team collaboration and scalability by integrating Optro across risk, audit, and compliance functions for effective decision-making. * Winner: Eaton "Audit, compliance, and infosec now work within Optro's shared platform to identify and address issues faster." - Brandon Masin, IT Audit Manager, Eaton * Cyber Resilience: Celebrating organizations using innovative technology, automation, and AI to enhance security, streamline compliance, and drive impactful GRC practices. * Winner: Verizon "With Optro, our security leaders query live data instantly instead of second-guessing dashboards." - Emmanual Benton, Director - Internal Audit, Verizon Internal Audit Team * Agent of Change: Awarding a leader who champions Optro's role in driving change within their organization, elevates the role of audit, and influences the broader industry. * Winner: Humana "With Optro, risk and audit now operate from a single source of truth." - Erin Banet, Chief Audit and Risk Officer, Humana "Winning a Connector Award in 2025 was incredibly validating for our team," said Tara Mavrovitis, Head of GRC and Internal Audit at Collibra. "It proved that our shift to continuous, AI-driven risk management is making a tangible impact and setting a standard for the industry. I love being part of this community of forward-thinking GRC leaders that constantly pushes us to raise the bar, and seeing what the 2026 winners have accomplished reinforces why this program matters so much." "Every year, we reveal our Connector Award winners live at CRX because there is no better room to celebrate these breakthroughs than one filled with the sharpest minds in GRC," said Raul Villar Jr., CEO of Optro. "Seeing our community gather in San Diego to share how they are pushing the boundaries of AI, continuous automation, and real-time intelligence is deeply inspiring. These leaders are actively setting the standard for modern operational resilience, and it's an honor to recognize their achievements on our biggest stage." About Optro Optro (formerly AuditBoard) helps enterprises transform risk into opportunity through its AI-powered GRC Intelligence Platform. More than 50% of the Fortune 500 trust Optro to elevate audit, risk, and compliance in addressing a new era of risk. Optro is top-rated by customers on G2 and was named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner(R) Magic Quadrant(TM) for Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Tools, Assurance Leaders. To learn more, visit optro.ai. Media Contact Laura Groshans