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What AI governance means
AI governance is the set of decisions, roles, policies, technical controls, and review routines that help an organisation use AI safely and responsibly. It connects legal, security, privacy, product, HR, engineering, and business teams around a common process.
The minimum viable AI governance model
- AI inventory: a list of AI systems, tools and use cases.
- Ownership: each use case has a named business owner and technical owner.
- Policy: clear rules for approved tools, sensitive data, human review, and prohibited uses.
- Risk triage: a lightweight classification step before a tool goes live.
- Evidence: vendor docs, data notes, testing, notices, approvals and review dates.
- Monitoring: incidents, complaints, drift, misuse, and performance failures are recorded.
Governance questions to ask
- Can employees tell which AI tools are approved?
- Do high-impact use cases need risk review before launch?
- Who can approve use of personal, confidential, or regulated data in AI tools?
- How do users know when they are interacting with AI?
- Who handles complaints, incidents, or incorrect AI outputs?
- How often are AI systems reviewed after launch?
A monthly governance routine
A practical monthly routine can be enough for many small teams: review new AI use cases, check regulatory updates, confirm vendor changes, update the AI inventory, review incidents, and assign next actions. This keeps the programme alive without requiring daily legal monitoring.
FAQ
What is the difference between AI governance and AI compliance?
Governance is the ongoing operating model; compliance is one outcome of that model. Governance helps you prove what decisions were made and why.
Who should own AI governance?
Usually a cross-functional owner: compliance, legal, security, product, privacy, and business leadership should be represented.
Can a small company do AI governance?
Yes. Start with an inventory, policy, risk triage and review calendar.
Sources and review method
This page is written as general business guidance, not legal advice. It is maintained from official AI Act materials, European Commission / AI Office updates, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and practical AI governance controls.