Security Questionnaire Volume Is Surging — Here's What the Data Shows

Security questionnaires have been a burden on security and GRC teams for years. If it feels like the workload behind them is surging, you’re not imagining things — and we have data to prove it.

It’s not just that teams are receiving more questionnaires. Reviews are becoming more complex, more urgent, and more closely tied to the buying process. Questionnaires now average nearly 100 questions, expedited requests are becoming more common, and buyers are asking increasingly specific questions about everything from AI governance to business continuity.

They’re also showing up earlier.

Security reviews that once served primarily as late-stage vendor validation are increasingly part of the initial evaluation process, sometimes before a vendor even makes the shortlist. And they’re expanding beyond traditional security controls to include product functionality, architecture, privacy, and other criteria that more closely resemble a pre-sales RFP.

For already-lean security and GRC teams, that creates a difficult equation: more requests + more scrutiny + higher expectations for speed.

Security assurance is becoming table stakes for doing business with enterprise customers. But the manual processes traditionally used to manage it weren’t built for today’s volume or velocity.

SecurityPal’s 2026 Assurance Insights Report, based on data from thousands of real-world security reviews, shows just how quickly that reality is changing — and what security and GRC teams need to do to keep up.

Security questionnaire volume is surging

Across industries, organizations are seeing year-over-year growth in inbound security questionnaires. And those questionnaires aren’t getting simpler.

SecurityPal’s data shows that the average questionnaire now contains nearly 100 questions, while teams are also facing growing demand for expedited turnaround. The content itself is becoming more precise and specialized as buyers dig deeper into emerging areas like AI governance, model oversight, business continuity, data usage, and regulatory readiness.

Two larger shifts are driving that demand.

• Enterprise buyers are scrutinizing vendors more closely. Security and GRC reviews increasingly examine not only whether controls exist, but how vendors govern emerging risks. AI is a clear example: instead of simply asking whether a vendor uses AI, buyers increasingly want to understand how models are governed, constrained, audited, and supervised — including whether customer data is ever used for model training.
• Security is becoming part of the buying decision earlier. Reviews are increasingly appearing before vendors are shortlisted and incorporating questions about product functionality and architecture alongside traditional security requirements. That makes assurance part of the sales process itself rather than a final hurdle at the end of it.

In other words, security teams aren’t just responding to more requests. They’re being pulled deeper into the revenue engine.

Why rising questionnaire volume matters

For security and GRC leaders, growing questionnaire volume isn’t simply a productivity problem. It’s an operational resilience problem.

When security assurance becomes a prerequisite for making the shortlist, teams need to be able to respond quickly and accurately regardless of how many requests arrive at once. That becomes especially challenging because questionnaire demand isn’t evenly distributed throughout the year.

SecurityPal data shows that August, September, and October are the busiest months for security questionnaires, as enterprise buyers finalize vendor selections and work to move deals forward ahead of year-end planning cycles.

A process that works when five questionnaires arrive can break down when 15 arrive at once — particularly when sales needs several of them expedited. And simply adding headcount every time volume increases isn’t a sustainable answer.

SecurityPal’s data points toward a clear conclusion: manual processes are reaching their ceiling. As assurance increasingly influences deal velocity, buyer confidence, expansions, and renewals, security teams need an operating model that can absorb higher demand without sacrificing accuracy.

What this means for security and GRC teams

The processes that worked when assurance was primarily a late-stage compliance exercise aren’t enough when trust has become part of the customer journey. Keeping pace requires a more scalable assurance infrastructure built around a few core capabilities.

1. Self-service where it makes sense

Not every buyer question needs to become a questionnaire.

Trust Centers give prospects and customers immediate access to commonly requested security information and artifacts, helping answer routine questions before they become manual requests.

That’s increasingly what buyers expect. Trust Centers have shifted from a differentiator to a baseline expectation, providing a first line of assurance that can deflect inbound questionnaires while allowing security teams to focus on higher-risk reviews.

2. Automation with human accountability

At today’s volume, automation is no longer optional. But automating a broken process doesn’t necessarily reduce the burden on your security team. The real goal is to remove work while maintaining the accuracy, judgment, and accountability enterprise assurance requires.

That’s why SecurityPal built H_SAI (Hyper-Supervised Assurance Intelligence) around an AI agent + human expert model. AI can handle repeatable, high-volume work while certified security experts provide the supervision, nuance, and accountability required for sensitive security and GRC requests.

The result is automation that protects human expertise rather than simply adding another layer of AI-generated output for internal teams to review.

3. Workflows that connect sales and security

If security reviews are appearing earlier in the buying journey, assurance can’t operate as an isolated back-office function.

Sales teams need a straightforward way to initiate requests, access approved security information, understand status, and get answers without creating endless Slack threads or email chains.

Integrating assurance workflows into the tools teams already use helps security support revenue without becoming a bottleneck every time a prospect asks a technical question.

4. Analytics that make assurance measurable

More volume also makes visibility more important. Security and GRC leaders need to understand how questionnaire demand is changing, how quickly their teams are responding, where bottlenecks occur, and how assurance activity connects to sales and revenue.

That visibility can help teams plan capacity, identify recurring friction, and demonstrate something that has historically been difficult to quantify: the business impact of security assurance.

5. Infrastructure built to scale

Finally, teams need to build for the volume they expect tomorrow, not just what they can manage today. Questionnaire demand already follows predictable seasonal spikes. And as organizations move upmarket, launch new products, enter regulated industries, or expand internationally, assurance requirements only become more complex.

When enterprise deals are on the line is the worst possible time to discover that your assurance process can’t scale.

The organizations best positioned for what comes next will be those that build centralized, reusable security knowledge, automate high-volume work, preserve human oversight for judgment and nuance, and make trust information continuously available to buyers.

See the full picture in the 2026 Assurance Insights Report

Surging questionnaire volume is only one piece of a much larger shift in how enterprises evaluate trust.

SecurityPal’s 2026 Assurance Insights Report analyzes data from thousands of real-world security reviews to reveal what buyers are asking, how their expectations are changing, and what security and GRC leaders should prepare for next.

Download the full report to explore:

• The most common emerging buyer questions
• The fastest-growing frameworks, including the EU AI Act and DORA
• Seasonal trends in security questionnaire volume
• How AI governance is reshaping security reviews
• What buyers expect from Trust Centers and AI disclosures
• What changing assurance demands mean for security and GRC teams in 2026

Download the report to see the full data and benchmark your assurance strategy against how enterprise trust is being evaluated today.