Move faster on vendor risk with AI-powered assurance.

Every new vendor creates another assessment, another approval, another evidence request and another decision. Unfortunately, most vendor risk processes still rely on questionnaires, spreadsheets and email to manage all of it

Onboarding a vendor raises a whole set of questions. What does the vendor support? What data or systems can it access? How much risk does it introduce? Are its controls sufficient? What must happen before the relationship can proceed?

Those questions become harder to answer as vendor ecosystems grow. Long questionnaires, repeated evidence requests, spreadsheet trackers and email approvals consume time without always improving the quality of the decision. Critical vendors wait in the same queue as routine services, while risk teams spend hours collecting information that may already exist.

Protecht and VISO TRUST create a faster route through that work. VISO TRUST uses AI to collect and analyze vendor evidence, helping teams form an initial risk view and focus follow-up where it matters. On average, VISO TRUST customers save 17 hours per vendor assessment, allowing risk teams to assess more vendors without increasing headcount.

Protecht provides the vendor record, workflow, ownership and enterprise risk context needed to turn that intelligence into accountable action.

Join Protecht and VISO TRUST for our "Move faster on third-party risk with AI-powered vendor assurance" webinar on Thursday August 27:

What changes with Protecht and VISO TRUST

Vendor assurance is becoming a capacity problem

Vendor risk teams face pressure from several directions. The business wants to introduce new services quickly. Risk, cyber, compliance and resilience teams need enough evidence to support a defensible decision. Regulators, executives, boards and auditors expect a clear view of material relationships and the risks they create.

Manual processes struggle to meet these demands. Every additional vendor creates more questionnaires to send, evidence to chase, responses to interpret, approvals to co-ordinate and reports to update. Treating every relationship in the same way also directs specialist effort towards low-risk vendors while critical dependencies wait.

A scalable model uses risk to determine the depth of work, AI to make existing evidence useful and connected workflows to carry the result into decisions, actions and ongoing oversight. That is the role Protecht and VISO TRUST play together. Across the full process, VISO TRUST customers have reduced total TPRM labor by 66%.

Put risk at the start of intake

Speed begins with a clear understanding of the relationship. Protecht gives teams a central vendor workspace where each relationship can be searched, filtered and reviewed. The record can capture the service, business owner, criticality, data access, operational dependency and other factors that determine the level of assurance required.

Tiering the vendor at intake gives the rest of the process a consistent starting point. A low-risk subscription can follow a lighter path. A vendor that supports a critical service, handles sensitive data or creates a material fourth-party dependency receives deeper scrutiny and clearer approval requirements.

From the Protecht workflow, the relationship can move into VISO TRUST for AI-powered assurance. Teams retain one governed vendor lifecycle while using VISO TRUST to accelerate the evidence and assessment work within it.

Build an evidence-led risk view

Traditional due diligence often begins by asking a vendor to complete another questionnaire. VISO TRUST begins with evidence that is already available. Its AI-powered assessment capabilities collect and analyze vendor documentation and trusted sources, identify relevant controls and help form an initial view of exposure. VISO TRUST can generate an AI-assisted assessment in 30 seconds, giving reviewers a rapid, evidence-led starting point.

Within the connected Protecht and VISO TRUST process, reviewers can examine inherent and residual risk, control coverage and the evidence supporting the result. They gain a useful starting point before asking the vendor for anything further, then apply professional judgment to the decision.

This changes where people spend their time. AI handles more of the collection, organization and first-pass analysis. Risk and cyber specialists can concentrate on material gaps, unusual results, weak evidence and the business context that technology cannot decide on its own.

Ask only what the risk requires

An initial assessment should lead to a clear next step. A low-risk vendor with sufficient evidence may be approved, with the rationale recorded. Where evidence is incomplete, the team can request targeted clarification through VISO TRUST rather than sending a broad questionnaire. VISO TRUST customers achieve a 98% vendor response rate, helping teams close the remaining evidence gaps without returning to broad, repetitive questionnaires.

If the assessment identifies a control gap, the reviewer can create a finding or remediation action in Protecht, assign an owner and set a due date. Material concerns can be escalated for deeper assessment, specialist review or formal risk acceptance.

Long questionnaires are reserved for relationships that justify them. Lower-risk vendors move without unnecessary delay, while the hardest questions receive the attention they deserve. Protecht retains the decision, approval path and audit history. VISO TRUST retains the assurance evidence and follow-up activity behind it.

Turn assurance into risk action

A risk score gains value when it changes what teams do. Protecht brings VISO TRUST assurance results into the wider vendor record, where teams can assign findings and actions, track deadlines, document acceptance and report on progress.

The same result can also connect with the risks it affects. A control gap at a technology provider may change the company's cyber exposure. Weak recovery capability may affect operational resilience. A vendor incident may require an investigation, control improvement or compliance response. Protecht connects vendor risk with cyber, resilience, controls, compliance, incidents and enterprise risk so these consequences remain visible and managed.

This context helps answer the management questions that matter. Which vendors require attention? What is driving the concern? Who owns the response? Is the exposure within appetite? Are actions reducing the risk? Leaders can see the state of the portfolio without rebuilding the story across separate files and systems.

Keep critical relationships under review

Vendor assurance loses value when it becomes a point-in-time exercise. A vendor's control environment, service, ownership, technology stack and fourth-party dependencies can change after onboarding. The review schedule should reflect both the importance of the relationship and changes in its risk posture.

VISO TRUST supports ongoing monitoring and reassessment, helping teams identify when new evidence or a material change deserves attention. Updated results can flow into Protecht, where the owner can review the impact, create actions, adjust the risk response and maintain the governed record.

At portfolio level, Protecht gives risk leaders a consistent view of critical vendors, outstanding assessments, findings, overdue actions and changes in exposure. That supports day-to-day prioritization and clear reporting to executives, boards, auditors and regulators.

Connect the vendor risk lifecycle

The combined Protecht and VISO TRUST lifecycle follows six connected steps:

1. Capture and tier the relationship in Protecht, with clear ownership and criticality.
2. Use VISO TRUST to collect and analyze available evidence and form an initial risk view.
3. Review the evidence, control coverage and residual risk, then choose a proportionate outcome.
4. Record the decision and follow up
5. Manage findings, approvals and actions in Protecht, connected with wider risk processes.
6. Monitor, reassess and report so material changes lead to timely review and response.

Each platform has a clear role. VISO TRUST shortens the path to useful assurance evidence. Protecht turns that intelligence into governed action across the vendor relationship and the wider enterprise risk framework.

Use AI without weakening accountability

Faster assurance still needs clear governance. Reviewers should be able to understand how an assessment reached its result, inspect the evidence behind it and challenge the outcome. Risk-based thresholds should define when a vendor can proceed and when human review or escalation is required.

Protecht and VISO TRUST support that model by keeping evidence, decisions, ownership and follow-up visible. AI accelerates preparation, consistency and triage. People remain accountable for accepting risk, setting conditions and deciding what action the company will take.

Move faster across the vendor lifecycle

Protecht and VISO TRUST make vendor risk more scalable by connecting speed with control. For VISO TRUST customers, these efficiencies have translated into 90% less due diligence time. Teams reach an evidence-led assessment sooner, focus deeper work on material relationships and carry every decision into owned actions, wider risk context and ongoing oversight.

Vendor risk doesn't have to be a bottleneck.

When AI-powered assurance is combined with connected enterprise workflows, teams can assess vendors faster, focus attention where it matters most and provide executives with greater confidence in every decision.

See how Protecht and VISO TRUST can help you accelerate vendor assurance, focus effort on material relationships and connect vendor intelligence with enterprise risk action: