Zactra Technologies Inc
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Responsible AI resource

AI governance checklist

AI governance becomes operational when every system has a defined purpose, owner, risk level, approved data, evaluation criteria, human oversight, monitoring and change process.

Direct answer

What you should know

This checklist helps product and engineering teams turn broad responsible-AI commitments into specific evidence and controls before and after launch.

Purpose and accountability

  • Document the intended use, users and prohibited uses.
  • Name business, product, technical and risk owners.
  • Define approval and exception authority.
  • Record affected users and potential consequences.

Data and system controls

  • Confirm source, permission, sensitivity and retention.
  • Limit model, tool and user access according to need.
  • Test input, retrieval and output boundaries.
  • Protect secrets and log consequential actions.

Quality and operation

  • Create representative evaluation cases.
  • Define human review and escalation.
  • Monitor quality, drift, incidents, latency and cost.
  • Re-evaluate material model, prompt, data or workflow changes.

Step-by-step process

  1. Register the system

    Record owner, purpose, users, model, data, tools, integrations and environment.

  2. Classify risk

    Assess impact, sensitivity, autonomy, reversibility, affected users and applicable obligations.

  3. Define requirements

    Specify approved use, prohibited use, data controls, quality thresholds, oversight and logging.

  4. Evaluate before release

    Test representative, edge, adversarial and permission-boundary cases against acceptance criteria.

  5. Approve and document

    Record the decision, evidence, limitations, responsible owners and operational conditions.

  6. Monitor and re-evaluate

    Track incidents, feedback, performance and material changes throughout operation.

Frequently asked questions

Ownership is shared across business, product, engineering, security, privacy, legal or compliance as appropriate, with one accountable decision path for each system.

Keep the intended-use record, risk decision, data sources, evaluations, approvals, known limitations, monitoring plan, incidents and material change history.

Require stronger oversight when actions are consequential, difficult to reverse, uncertain, sensitive or affect rights, safety, finances or access.

Review frequency should reflect risk and change. Material model, data, prompt, tool or workflow changes should trigger re-evaluation.

Sources and further reading