Accountable owners
Identify accountable business and technical roles for each AI system.
GOVERNANCE / RESPONSIBILITY
Keep authority where it belongs
Governance means defining permitted AI uses, assigning ownership, managing risk, and preserving appropriate human oversight.
Govern the full lifecycle
Controls should follow a system through registration, assessment, approval, operation, change, and retirement.
Rules and restrictions
Maintain policies with clear applicability, effective dates, and responsible approvers.
Contextual assessment
Assess risk in relation to impact, operating context, data, and intended decisions.
Human authority
Define reviewer permissions, escalation thresholds, and rejection paths.
Ongoing oversight
Review exceptions, model changes, risk indicators, and unresolved issues.
Corrective actions
Record required interventions and retain context for independent review.
What governance decisions look like
A policy can require an action to be stopped, escalated, or reviewed before it becomes effective.
| Element | What clients should expect |
|---|---|
| Policy definition | The current policy and its owner are identifiable. |
| Decision threshold | Conditions for automated processing or human escalation are explicit. |
| Approver identity | Authorization is evaluated against the relevant organization and role. |
| Reason and evidence | Decision rationale references the policy and evidence available at the time. |
Governance is not a compliance certificate
A platform can help organize a customer’s governance processes; it does not by itself grant legal compliance, certification, or safe outcomes.
Clarify the division of authority
Effective governance is not simply a collection of policy documents. It specifies who is allowed to do what, when a person must intervene, and how disputes are handled.
Policy owner
Approves the rule set, risk appetite, and permitted uses. Changes need version identifiers and effective dates so earlier decisions can be interpreted against the correct rule.
Operational reviewer
Evaluates flagged actions against the available evidence and their delegated authority. The reviewer should be able to reject, escalate, or document a justified exception.
Assurance reviewer
Assesses whether the governance process was followed, which evidence was available, and where controls failed. This role should not be confused with the operator who took the original decision.
Real-world control efficacy must be validated using the actual integration, permissions, event capture, and review workflow.