RocketDocs CEO: 80% of Boards Push AI, Only 20% Trust It, Creating Governance Gap
In a new podcast episode, RocketDocs CEO Perry Robinson reveals a stark disconnect between board-level AI adoption mandates and enterprise trust, with only 20% of companies deploying AI tools, highlighting risks of shadow AI and regulatory pressures from the EU AI Act.
In the latest episode of The Building Texas Show, titled "Why 80% of Companies Don't Trust AI (And They're Right)," host Justin McKenzie and RocketDocs CEO Perry Robinson delve into a critical governance challenge: while approximately 80% of corporate boards are pushing for AI adoption, only about 20% of companies actually trust these tools enough to deploy them. The conversation, published June 6, 2026, underscores a widening trust gap that has significant implications for regulated industries such as life sciences, healthcare, insurance, and financial services.
Robinson warns that the pressure to adopt AI is driving risky behavior, including "shadow AI," where employees paste proprietary data into free versions of ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. He emphasizes that contractual language alone cannot protect corporate intellectual property once sensitive data enters public models, cautioning that "if you're not paying for the product, you are the product." This issue is compounded by recent policy shifts, such as Atlassian's update on training customer Jira and Confluence data, which signals broader trends for SaaS vendors.
The conversation also highlights the impending EU AI Act, which introduces revenue-based fines for non-compliance, adding urgency for enterprises to establish robust AI governance frameworks. Robinson notes that buyers are increasingly including AI governance committees, chief compliance officers, and general counsel in procurement processes, often negotiating AI addenda to contracts.
RocketDocs' approach, encapsulated in the philosophy "Policy is a promise, architecture is a guarantee," involves its Luma platform, a secure generative AI layer running entirely on a customer's own knowledge base within their VPC, audited against ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 standards. Luma is deliberately limited to avoid crawling the open internet, ensuring answers are grounded in approved content. The platform also includes a new secure file transfer capability for defense, law enforcement, and product launch scenarios where large sensitive files cannot be emailed.
Robinson, who joined the 30-year-old RocketDocs three years ago, emphasizes that these measures are essential for maintaining trust in AI deployments. The episode is available now on major podcast platforms and YouTube, sponsored by Chisos Boots.