In this episode of Corruption, Crime and Compliance, Michael Volkov talks with Aaron Nicodemus, editor-in-chief of Compliance Week, about the state of the compliance profession and the findings of Compliance Week’s latest “Inside the Mind of the CCO” survey. They discuss a troubling reversal in reporting lines, with more compliance officers now reporting through general counsel rather than directly to CEOs or boards after several years of progress toward greater independence, and what that structural shift signals about how seriously organizations value the function amid shifting political winds and uneven federal enforcement priorities. The conversation turns to artificial intelligence as both the defining opportunity and risk of the moment: survey data shows AI use across organizations has jumped to roughly 85%, yet a significant share of compliance officers report no governance plan is in place, leaving gaps around data privacy, algorithmic decision-making, hallucinated outputs, and “shadow AI” used by employees and third-party vendors alike. Nicodemus and Volkov agree that compliance is uniquely positioned to build the guardrails that let organizations use AI productively rather than recklessly, and they close by identifying data privacy, third-party risk management, and responsible AI adoption as the three pillars compliance officers should be watching most closely in the years ahead.