Glossary

What is AI governance?

AI governance is the set of rules, roles and records an organisation uses to control how AI is used. In practice it sets which AI tools are approved and what data may go into them. It names who checks AI output before it reaches customers, and what is recorded so decisions can be explained later. It also covers following outside regulation, such as the EU AI Act.

Why it matters for a business

Without it, the line between low-risk and high-risk use gets crossed by whoever is in a hurry, and when a customer or a regulator asks how a decision was made, nobody can answer. It does not need to start as a long policy. A one-page note the team has actually read, a named reviewer for high-stakes output, and a log of which model, prompt and data produced each result cover the minimum. That log is cheap to set up at build time and close to impossible to recover afterwards.