The six Governing Principles
Every requirement in AIGMS™ traces back to one of six principles. They explain why the framework asks for what it asks for, so they give a business owner a way to judge whether any AI governance arrangement is doing its job.
The six Governing Principles are the test AIGMS™ applies to its own requirements. Where a rule in the framework would breach one of them, the rule is wrong. They are also the fastest way for a business owner to judge whether an AI governance arrangement is doing its job, whether or not that arrangement is AIGMS™.
Proportionality
Governance effort matches what could go wrong
A tool that summarises internal meeting notes and a tool that ranks job applicants do not deserve the same scrutiny. AIGMS™ scales the requirement to the consequence, so a Negligible Activity carries only the six Foundation Safeguards while a Critical one carries the full applicable suite.
Visibility
You cannot govern what you have not identified
Discovery comes before policy. The Activity Register is built through six channels rather than a single email asking people what they use, because the Activities nobody declares are the ones carrying the unassessed consequences.
Human Accountability
A named person owns every Activity
Every entry on the register carries an Accountable Person by name, not a department or a job family. Technology does not absorb responsibility, so an AI-assisted decision remains a decision somebody made.
Transparency of Purpose
People affected can find out that AI is in use
Where AI contributes to something that affects a person, that person should be able to establish that it did and why. Transparency and disclosure form their own Safeguard Group rather than being left to a privacy notice.
Continuous Vigilance
Governance is a cycle, not a project
Providers change their models, organisations change their processes and the regulatory position moves. Review frequency follows the consequence rating rather than the calendar, while six defined triggers force a re-profile between scheduled reviews.
Integration
AI governance sits inside the systems you already run
AIGMS™ is designed to run alongside health and safety, data protection and quality arrangements rather than as a separate discipline with its own committee. The Governance Lead is normally an existing manager.
Using the principles as a check
The principles are most useful when something in the register looks awkward. If an Activity feels over-governed, test it against Proportionality. If nobody can say who owns a tool, that is Human Accountability. If the register has not moved in a year, that is Continuous Vigilance.
Continue reading
Material changes since the previous version See the framework overview
Put this into practice
The AIGMS™ packs contain the documents, registers, workbooks and training that turn the framework into a working system.