---
title: "Decommissioning"
description: "The planned retirement of an AI system: dependency analysis, fallback and transition, sunset notices, a final evidence snapshot, archive or disposal of weights and data, revocation of every…"
canonical: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/decommissioning
author: "Jorge García Aibar"
license: "CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)"
doi: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197
version: "0.5.0"
updated: 2026-09-25
---

# Decommissioning

The planned retirement of an AI system: dependency analysis, fallback and transition, sunset notices, a final evidence snapshot, archive or disposal of weights and data, revocation of every identity, and a registry entry marked retired rather than deleted. NIST asks that systems be phased out safely [1].

- Developed in: [ch. 15, Retirement and decommissioning](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-deployment#retirement-and-decommissioning); [ch. 05, Pattern: Deactivation, Localisation & Retirement Runbook](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/patterns/deactivation-localisation-retirement-runbook)
- Chapters: [ch. 05, Patterns](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/patterns) · [ch. 15, Deployment](https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/governing-deployment)
- In the glossary chapter: https://aigovernanceengineer.com/bok/glossary#t-decommissioning

## Sources

[1] NIST AI RMF Playbook, GOVERN (per subcategory: About, Suggested Actions, Transparency and Documentation, References; GOVERN 1.7 decommissioning and phasing out safely). NIST Trustworthy and Responsible AI Resource Center. 2026. https://airc.nist.gov/airmf-resources/playbook/govern/ (verified: primary)