2023 Predictions Part Two: Navigating the Complexities of Data in EMEIA

The coming year will continue to bring challenges for businesses across EMEIA, particularly in the context of data-related risks. Organisations must not only contend with economic and geopolitical uncertainty, but they are also facing market pressures to pursue digital transformation and establish compliance with a vast web of global regulations.

A wide range of issues must now be understood and managed with resolve in order to protect corporate value and competitive advantage. We collected a series of predictions from our teams across the EMEIA region to offer perspective on top issues legal and compliance teams can watch in the coming year to help stay in front of their top risks.

These predictions include:

• “Data volumes are continuing to grow rapidly, and many corporations are simply not prepared to respond to regulatory inquiries that require large and diverse data production. Emerging data sources are adding another layer of complexity to this, compounding the problem for legal and compliance teams. Further, particularly in certain regions in EMEIA, corporate IT infrastructure is often outdated and creating blind spots for business continuity, compliance monitoring and regulatory response.” – Renato Fazzone, Senior Managing Director, Germany.
• “E-discovery has a very cyclical nature. After years of innovation, there always comes a consolidation phase where workflows become more set. The greatest gains in efficiency and workflow improvement are achieved when specialised expert knowledge can be imparted and consolidated into workflows or tools so tasks can be handled in bulk. Over the last few years, there has been tremendous innovation across emerging data sources, analytics, cloud services and complex review, with pockets of experts coming to the fore to drive these areas forward. Moving into 2023, we’ll see more automation and templatisation of these advancements, so they can be incorporated into standardised, repeatable workflows.” – Glenn Barden, Managing Director, UK.
• “In the blockchain and digital assets arena, we are going to witness an explosion of new immersive experiences relying on decentralised architectures, blockchain and Web3 concepts, as brands, private companies and governments try to earn consumer trust and loyalty in innovative ways. Naturally, new risk considerations and disputes and investigations will follow.” – Jorge Carrasco, Managing Director, United Arab Emirates.
• “The continuous shift to cloud computing will invite ongoing concerns about data privacy and information security in the cloud, but leading cloud systems will likely continue to prove resilience on these fronts. The key to reinforcing that resilience will be strategically addressing in which systems the most valuable data sits and how it is governed. The need for strategic governance will be further underscored by the continuation of hybrid working models to protect company IP and data against potential loss, theft or improper use. Separately, the tension in the economy may lead to fiercer disputes between companies, which will require companies to be more efficient in proactively preventing harm, as well as pursuing remediation against individuals or entities that aim to undermine their position through illegal activities.” – Jerry Lay, Senior Managing Director, Switzerland.
• “Information governance must be treated as a first line of defence as the landscape of threats expands. This will also be critical for organisations that are seeking insurance to protect them against data breaches, as the requirements for such protections will become more stringent.” – Ines Rubio, Senior Director, Ireland.

Read more about the state of Digital Insights and Risk Management in our e-book, The Most Valuable, Vulnerable Commodity: Data Establishes a New Era of Digital Insights & Risk Management.

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.