AI governance

The set of rules, roles, controls and evidence that keeps AI systems within the limits an organisation or a state has chosen. It decides which systems may run and what they may do, and draws on law such as the AI Act 1, management-system standards 2, risk frameworks 3 and principle sets 4.

Developed in
What is AI governance?
ch. 12, The organisation as an object of governance
Chapters
ch. 01, Definition · ch. 12, Governance Program · ch. 22, Principles & Standards
Contrast with
AI governance engineering
Source
4 numbered references, listed below

Where it is used

20 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Patterns that use this term

33 pattern pages use the term; the 10 that use it most:

Sources

  1. [1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), consolidated text as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI, in force 27 Jul 2026; definitions in Art. 3, incl. 3(1), 3(3) to 3(14), 3(14b), 3(20), 3(22), 3(23), 3(29) to 3(32), 3(49), 3(55) to 3(57), 3(60), 3(61), 3(63), 3(68); Arts. 4, 5, 6 (incl. 6(3) third subparagraph, profiling), 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 22 to 27 (incl. 26(11)), 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50, 53 (incl. 53(1)(c)), 55, 57, 60, 72, 73, 86; Annexes I, III, IV). Publications Office of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2026-07-27. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/2026-07-27/eng (verified: primary)
  2. [2] ISO/IEC 42001:2023, AI management systems (referenced by identifier only; requirements for an AI management system; clause 10.2 nonconformity and corrective action). ISO/IEC. 2023. https://www.iso.org/standard/81230.html (verified: secondary)
  3. [3] Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0), NIST AI 100-1 (risk tolerance and residual risk; seven trustworthy characteristics; transparency answers "what happened", explainability "how", interpretability "why"; MAP 1.1 intended purposes; MANAGE 1.1 go/no-go determination; profiles). NIST. 2023-01-26. https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.AI.100-1 (verified: primary)
  4. [4] Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence, OECD/LEGAL/0449 (adopted 22 May 2019; AI-system definition revised 8 Nov 2023; revised 3 May 2024; five principles and five recommendations; 1.3 enables people adversely affected to challenge an output; definitions of AI system, lifecycle and AI actors). OECD. 2024-05-03. https://legalinstruments.oecd.org/en/instruments/OECD-LEGAL-0449 (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). AI governance. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/ai-governance. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026aigovernance,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{AI governance}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/ai-governance}
}