Last Updated on March 20, 2025 Jenn Smith
Governance before AI plus the ambiguity of AI in the records management world among popular topics at chapter conference
Earlier this month, Colligo attended CONFIRM.NYC 2025, an event put on by the ARMA Metro NYC chapter. The event featured three tracks: Information Governance, Technology, Risk & Compliance.
Most of conversations at the event were with folks in the financial services and legal industry. Both industries are leaders in governance and compliance, privacy and technology adoption. Here are six key takeaways we gleaned from our conversations and sessions. 
1. Governance before AI
The understanding and education around governance before AI is a continued theme from other recent conferences, and something we invest a lot of time in at Colligo. Not to sound like a broken record, but with AI, the outputs are only as good as the inputs.
This requires ensuring:
- Inputs are coming from usable data
- The right guardrails are in place
- The data is well structured and accurate
The data (and the use of various AI applications) needs to be governed and decided on first before use. This was an underlying theme across many of the sessions, as “AI” (and more specifically, LLMs and Agents) remain highly topical items!
2. Ambiguity of AI in the records management world
There is a lot of ambiguity about how the advent of AI (LLM’s specifically) will be treated in the records management world. Two key questions remain:
- Does the output from an AI model constitute a record or not?
- If the AI output influences a business decision, is it a record or not?
My view is that only the finished product is the record. A draft or source of information is not a record. However, the industry still needs to form best practices around this topic.
3. Microsoft Purview has gaps when it comes to records management
The session on Microsoft Purview was well attended and featured some of the latest developments from Microsoft. Purview continues to make significant headway. However, audience sentiment was that the platform is incomplete when it comes to lifecycle management, a concern for some records managers who were present.
That said, the newer AI information protection features (Data Security Posture Management or DSPM) look positive.
4. Privacy is paramount
Privacy appears to be taking a bigger seat at the table with records and legal departments. Given a heightened and more stringent regulatory environment, the role of privacy, alongside records management, legal and compliance, will continue to be vital to organizations operating in jurisdictions around the world.
My favorite comment from one of the Chief Data Privacy Officer speakers was reiterating the fact that a “foundation of governance is absolutely key.” 
5. “Information Governance” > “Records Management”
One of the speakers noted that internally renaming their Records Management group to Information Governance helped boost the clout of the group within the organization. The renaming also elevated its importance related to all things coming down the pipeline, including AI and AI governance. This sentiment was shared by other attendees as well.
6. Email records management remains a problem
Notably, the challenge of email management and managing email records came up several times in group conversations. Echoing sentiment from our presentation at ARMA Canada last year, this is a challenge every organization struggles with! This reaffirmed our commitment to continual improvements to Colligo Email Manager and solving business’ email compliance problems.
The information governance and records management space continues to evolve at a rapid pace, particularly with the proliferation of AI apps. Conferences such as ARMA CONFIRM.NYC provide a necessary forum for the many professionals eager to learn, improve and bring proper governance to their organizations.
