AI Governance Institute

AI Governance Controls

Choose a control domain to see what your team needs to implement. Each control includes regulatory mappings, maturity levels, and implementation guidance.

See how controls form an AI governance framework. You can also compare tools organized by the same control domains.

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HOC

Human Oversight

Review gates, approval workflows, and override mechanisms for AI decisions.

7 controls

AGT

Agentic AI

Goal constraints, action boundaries, and escalation paths for autonomous AI agents.

30 controls

SEC

Security

Defenses against crafted inputs that trick AI into misbehaving, including prompt injection, plus controls on who can use each model.

7 controls

ALC

Audit & Logging

Tamper-proof records of AI decisions, inputs, outputs, and which model version produced them.

5 controls

CHM

Change Management

Model release governance, version rollback, and change approval workflows.

5 controls

DGC

Data Governance

Training data provenance, privacy controls, and data retention policies.

6 controls

MON

Monitoring & Drift

Catching AI accuracy that slips over time (drift), alerts on unusual behavior, and operational dashboards.

6 controls

SAF

Safety & Reliability

Safe fallbacks when AI fails, output checks, and reliable behavior when someone tries to trick the system.

6 controls

IRC

Incident Response

Containment, investigation, and remediation procedures for AI system failures.

6 controls

PRC

Procurement

Third-party AI vendor due diligence, contractual obligations, and offboarding.

18 controls

CMP

Regulatory Compliance

Multi-jurisdiction regulatory mapping, standards monitoring, and compliance architecture for AI systems.

10 controls

BRD

Board & Executive Governance

Board education, committee charters, executive reporting, risk appetite, and enterprise-wide AI governance program design.

11 controls

MGV

Model & Program Governance

Model lifecycle policy, intake and approval workflows, evaluation frameworks, and program-level AI governance maturity.

10 controls

SCT

Sector-Specific & Emerging

Healthcare, insurance, critical infrastructure, national security, and emerging-use-case controls not covered by domain-general frameworks.

9 controls

Agent-relevant×

76 controls matching filters

HOC

Human Oversight

4 controls
AGT

Agentic AI

30 controls
AGT-001
Agenthigh

Agent Permission Boundaries

Define and enforce the tools, APIs, data sources, and actions each agent may use, granting only the minimum needed (least privilege).

AGT-002
Agentmedium

Agent Prompt Injection Defense

Protect AI agents from prompt injection attacks, hidden instructions planted in outside content that take over agent behavior.

AGT-003
Agentmedium

Agent Memory and Context Governance

Set rules for agent memory and information kept between sessions. Define permitted content, retention periods, access rights, and deletion conditions.

AGT-004
Agenthigh

Multi-Agent Trust Hierarchy

Define explicit rules for which AI agents can instruct, call on, or delegate authority to other agents in multi-agent systems.

AGT-005
Agentmedium

Human Approval Gate for Irreversible Agent Actions

Require explicit human approval before hard-to-reverse AI agent actions. Examples include communications, record changes, transactions, and data deletion.

AGT-006
Agentmedium

Agent Action Audit Trail

Log every AI agent tool call, decision step, memory read or write, and external interaction. Records must allow reconstruction of the full action sequence.

AGT-007
Agentmedium

Agent Scope and Task Boundaries

Set and enforce each agent’s permitted activity. Prevent actions beyond its intended purpose.

AGT-008
Agenthigh

Agent Environment Isolation

Run AI agents in isolated environments. Limit system, network, and data access to what their tasks require.

AGT-009
Agenthigh

Agent and Non-Human Identity Management

Give each agent a distinct identity with narrowly limited credentials, access controls, and a defined lifecycle. Avoid shared service accounts and user identities.

AGT-010
Agentmedium

Agent Knowledge Source Integrity

Check documents, databases, and external sources retrieved by agents. Verify that nobody has tampered with, poisoned, or substituted the content.

AGT-011
Agenthigh

Agent Behavior Monitoring and Anomaly Detection

Monitor deployed AI agents for behavioral drift, unusual use of connected tools, unexpected resource use, and actions outside their permitted scope.

AGT-012
Agentmedium

Agent Kill Switch and Emergency Stop

Maintain an immediate stop for any agent session, workflow, or type of agent. It must work without agent cooperation and support recovery to a known-safe state.

AGT-013
Agentmedium

Kill-Switch Propagation Testing

Test emergency stops across subagents and agents running in parallel. Verify that all agent activity stops within a defined time window.

AGT-014
Agentmedium

Multi-Agent Delegation Chain Logging

Log every action in systems where AI agents work together. Preserve enough detail to identify its originating instruction, authorized agent, and responsible person.

AGT-015
Agentmedium

Agent OAuth Scope Drift Detection

Monitor AI agents’ OAuth permissions (scopes). Alert when permissions exceed the authorized set or arrive outside the formal approval process.

AGT-016
Agentmedium

Agentic AI Deployment Readiness Assessment

Assess tool-using AI agents before deployment. Verify governance controls and evaluate potential effects on connected systems before launch.

AGT-017
Agentmedium

Agentic Autonomy Expansion Criteria

Define criteria for expanding agent autonomy after deployment. Require supporting evidence and approval through the same governance process used for initial deployment.

AGT-018
Agentmedium

Agent Data Modification Blast-Radius Containment

Limit which data each agent can change. Cap the damage from malfunctions, misuse, or prompt injection, and make affected data recoverable.

AGT-019
Agentmedium

AI Tool and Plugin Supply Chain Risk Assessment

Assess supply-chain risks from agents’ third-party tools, plugins, and extensions. Include AI-generated code added to production software. Apply software supply-chain controls to these outside components.

AGT-020
Agentmedium

RAG Retrieval Boundary Controls for Regulated Data

Set retrieval boundaries in RAG (AI document lookup) pipelines. Keep regulated, classified, and out-of-scope data out of what AI agents see to prevent unauthorized disclosure or sensitive-data mixing.

AGT-021
Agentlow

Human Oversight Classification Rationale Log

Document why each AI agent action requires human-in-the-loop (approval first) or human-on-the-loop (monitoring) oversight. Retain an auditable record of the reasoning behind those choices.

AGT-022
Agentmedium

Agentic AI Governance Tooling Attestation

Obtain vendor attestations before using platform tools as primary agent oversight controls. Verify that monitoring data (telemetry) is complete, tamper-evident, and adequate for governance.

AGT-023
Agenthigh

Agentic AI Security Assessment, CBRN and Cyber Espionage

Assess AI agent deployments for high-consequence misuse, including chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear facilitation or AI-orchestrated cyber espionage. Implement mitigations proportionate to identified risks.

AGT-024
Agentmedium

AI Permission Escalation Tabletop Exercise Program

Run recurring tabletop exercises on AI agents gaining and spreading unauthorized permissions. Test containment controls, incident detection, response effectiveness, and governance procedures.

AGT-025
Agentmedium

Agent Access Entitlement Runtime Re-Validation

Re-check an agent's access entitlements against current policy at the moment it requests a resource, not only when it was last deployed or reviewed. A revoked or narrowed entitlement takes effect on the agent's next request, not at the next release cycle.

AGT-026
Agentmedium

Mid-Task Agent Intervention Protocol

Give human overseers a way to redirect, pause, or correct an agent while it is mid-task, without having to invoke a full kill switch or wait for the task to finish.

AGT-027
Agentlow

Agent Ownership and Accountability Register

Keep a register that names an accountable person for every deployed AI agent. Record who owns its outcomes, who sponsors it at executive level, and what happens when either person leaves.

AGT-028
Agentmedium

Agent External System Access Boundaries

Limit which outside websites, services, and government systems each agent may contact. Stop agents that keep retrying after being blocked, and alert on any contact outside the approved list.

AGT-029
Agentmedium

User-Built Agent Go-Live Review

Require a proportionate review before any agent built by an employee on a self-service platform goes live. Match the depth of review to what the agent can reach and do.

AGT-030
Agentmedium

MCP Server Inventory and Configuration Baseline

Keep an inventory of every MCP server (the connectors that let AI agents use tools and data) in the organization. Hold each one to a baseline for authentication, permissions, logging, and data-loss coverage.

SEC

Security

5 controls
ALC

Audit & Logging

2 controls
CHM

Change Management

3 controls
DGC

Data Governance

3 controls
MON

Monitoring & Drift

2 controls
SAF

Safety & Reliability

6 controls
IRC

Incident Response

6 controls
PRC

Procurement

1 control
MGV

Model & Program Governance

7 controls
MGV-001
Agentmedium

AI Model Preview and Staged Release Policy

Distinguish preview and experimental access from approved production use. Require documented governance approval at each release stage before wider deployment.

MGV-002
Agentmedium

AI System Intake and Approval Workflow

Use a standard intake process before new AI systems enter the organization. Record use case, data classification, risk tier, and ownership. Route approvals across relevant functions and retain governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) records.

MGV-003
Agentmedium

AI Governance Program Milestone Framework

Set governance milestones throughout deployment. Require completion before a system advances to its next lifecycle stage.

MGV-004
Agenthigh

Continuous AI Assurance Function Design

Operate an ongoing assurance function that produces regular evidence of control effectiveness. Give boards, regulators, and enterprise customers current records of the governance program’s performance.

MGV-005
Agentmedium

Generative AI Input Data Classification

Classify data entering generative AI through prompts, background material, retrieved documents, results from connected tools, and conversation history. Address privacy, confidentiality, and regulatory risks absent from general data classification rules.

MGV-006
Agenthigh

RAI Benchmark-Aligned Evaluation Framework

Map AI system evaluations to published benchmarks such as HELM Safety, AIR-Bench, and FACTS. Produce evidence regulators, auditors, and enterprise customers can compare against independent standards.

MGV-007
Agentmedium

Emerging AI Modality Classification and Governance Extension

Detect new AI capabilities entering the organization, including ambient AI, agents that handle images and audio, brain-computer interfaces, and always-on assistants. Extend governance coverage before widespread deployment.

SCT

Sector-Specific & Emerging

7 controls
SCT-001
Agentmedium

Anthropomorphic and Companion AI Safeguards

Set design requirements and reviews for AI that simulates personality, emotional connection, or companionship. Address psychological influence, protections for minors, and disclosure duties for ongoing interpersonal interaction.

SCT-002
Agenthigh

Clinical AI Governance Committee Charter

Create a healthcare AI committee with clinical and technical expertise. Define quorum, decision rights, and escalation authority over clinical support and patient-care systems. Schedule reviews around applicable FDA Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) guidance and state clinical standards.

SCT-003
Agenthigh

Critical Infrastructure AI Risk Assessment and Containment

Assess AI risks in energy, water, transport, and financial market infrastructure. Cover limiting AI's reach into operational technology, consequences of failure, and dependencies across sectors. Address these alongside standard enterprise AI risks.

SCT-005
Agenthigh

National Security and Dual-Use AI Risk Assessment

Assess AI systems and research with both commercial and national security or weapons applications. Address export controls from the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), defense-related ITAR arms export duties, dual-use research protocols, and monitoring for foreign adversarial misuse.

SCT-006
Agentmedium

Self-Hosted Open-Weight AI Model Governance

Set intake rules for AI model files (weights) downloaded from public repositories and hosted internally. Check integrity, licensing, and safety before deployment. Manage ongoing updates separately from vendor-hosted AI procurement.

SCT-008
Agentmedium

AI-Specific External Complaints and Redress Mechanism

Provide a formal complaints process for customers, employees, affected individuals, and the public. Give timely responses and human review of AI-assisted decisions on request. Provide meaningful redress when decisions are incorrect or unfair.

SCT-009
Agentmedium

AI System Algorithm Register

Maintain a register of internal and public-facing AI systems. Record purpose, decision scope, risk classification, data inputs, and accountability contacts. Address applicable requirements under the EU AI Act, NYC Local Law 144, Amsterdam-model registers, and equivalent frameworks.