Enterprise data governance establishes policies, roles, and controls to manage organizational data as a strategic asset through its lifecycle. It operates at the intersection of compliance, security, quality, and business value, ensuring data remains trustworthy, accessible, protected, and fit for purpose. Modern governance balances centralized standards with domain-level ownership, increasingly relying on automation, AI-driven classification, and policy-as-code to scale with enterprise data volumes. In 2026, governance has evolved from reactive compliance to proactive enablement—especially critical for AI readiness, where model accuracy and regulatory accountability both depend on well-governed foundational data.