Why AI Governance is Key to Scaling AI

Governance is the aspect of AI that most reliably triggers resistance from delivery teams. The perception, which can often be well-founded in experience, is that governance means delays, committees, paperwork and risk management leading to blockers. This perception is understandable but can lead to significant risk. Understandable, because many organisations have governance frameworks that aren’t necessarily suited to the iterative, experimental nature of AI development. However the absence of governance does not eliminate risk, but rather it means that risks are often uncovered in production, where the consequences are most severe and the cost of remediation is highest. The organisations that are scaling AI successfully have resolved this tension - not by choosing between speed and governance, but by fundamentally rethinking what governance means in the context of AI. They have made it proportionate, embedded and automated, with the evidence showing that this approach can help to acce