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.

28 controls

SEC

Security

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

6 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.

17 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

Medium effort×

83 controls matching filters

HOC

Human Oversight

4 controls
AGT

Agentic AI

20 controls
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-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-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-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-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-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-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

3 controls
ALC

Audit & Logging

3 controls
CHM

Change Management

2 controls
DGC

Data Governance

4 controls
MON

Monitoring & Drift

3 controls
SAF

Safety & Reliability

4 controls
IRC

Incident Response

3 controls
PRC

Procurement

10 controls
PRC-001
medium

AI Vendor Due Diligence

Assess AI vendors against security, governance, and compliance criteria before procurement and at defined intervals during the vendor relationship.

PRC-002
medium

AI Contractual Requirements

Set minimum AI vendor contract terms for data handling, transparency, audit rights, and incident notification.

PRC-005
medium

AI Procurement Risk Assessment

Assess technical, legal, privacy, and operational risks before approving an AI system or service purchase. Document the findings.

PRC-006
medium

Vendor Safety Commitment Verification

Check whether vendors honor published safety commitments, voluntary pledges, and contractual duties throughout the relationship.

PRC-008
medium

Vendor Model Update Disclosure and Re-Assessment Protocol

Require disclosure of material vendor model updates, including capability changes, safety results, and revised model cards (vendors' published model fact sheets). Trigger internal reassessment when updates affect prior due diligence.

PRC-009
medium

AI Vendor Concentration Risk Assessment

Assess dependence on a small number of AI vendors or underlying model providers. Document supplier alternatives supporting continuity if a primary provider fails, suspends access, or becomes unavailable.

PRC-011
medium

Federal AI Procurement Submission and Review Process

Set a process for federal AI procurement submissions. Track voluntary pre-deployment evaluation commitments becoming mandatory and update procurement workflows accordingly.

PRC-014
medium

Shadow AI and Third-Party Widget Inventory and Classification

Discover and classify AI built into cloud software (SaaS), browser extensions, and code running in web pages. Apply appropriate processing and vendor-risk controls to these shadow AI sources.

PRC-015
medium

Procurement-Stage AI Governance Conditions

Set governance conditions that must be met before AI procurement finishes. Include contractual standards, whistleblowing policies, and internal approval triggers.

PRC-016
Agentmedium

AI Developer Tool Data Boundary Controls

Define which coding assistants and AI developer tools the enterprise permits, including what data they may transmit. Evaluate data boundaries before deployment and whenever vendor policies change.

CMP

Regulatory Compliance

6 controls
BRD

Board & Executive Governance

8 controls
BRD-001
medium

Director AI Literacy and Competency Assessment

Assess directors’ AI knowledge against defined standards. Address gaps through targeted education so the board can carry out its oversight duties.

BRD-002
medium

AI Governance Committee Charter and Decision Rights

Charter an AI governance committee with members from relevant functions. Define its mandate, membership, decision rights, quorum, escalation paths, and board reporting duties.

BRD-003
medium

Board-Level AI Safety Committee Charter

Establish a board committee responsible for AI safety oversight and high-consequence risk decisions. Keep its fiduciary responsibilities distinct from the operational governance committee.

BRD-004
medium

AI Governance ESG and Investor Disclosure

Set a process for reporting AI governance maturity, risk management, and safety practices to shareholders, institutional investors, and ESG agencies.

BRD-005
medium

AI Governance Maturity Assessment

Assess the governance program against defined maturity frameworks and external benchmarks. Use the findings to prioritize improvements.

BRD-006
medium

AI Risk Tolerance and Appetite Documentation

Document and approve AI risk tolerance across relevant risk categories. Obtain board sign-off and schedule periodic reviews.

BRD-008
medium

Voluntary AI Governance Adequacy Standard

Define an internal governance standard where binding AI mandates are absent. Document how it meets stakeholder expectations and anticipated regulatory requirements.

BRD-011
medium

AI Governance Training Program and Completion Tracking

Maintain AI training tailored to staff roles, with documented curricula and annual completion targets. Keep auditable completion records and review content periodically. Cover staff responsible for design, deployment, review, and oversight.

MGV

Model & Program Governance

8 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-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-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.

MGV-008
medium

AI-Generated Deliverable Disclosure and Citation Standards

Set AI disclosure standards for client-facing, regulatory, and published work. Verify AI-generated citations and factual claims before external distribution. Professional services teams should disclose AI involvement before closing engagements.

MGV-009
medium

AI Capability Claim Substantiation Standard

Set documentation standards for AI capability claims. Cover marketing, product documentation, sales discussions, regulatory submissions, and procurement responses. Retain supporting evidence that meets Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosure expectations and enterprise due diligence requirements.

MGV-010
medium

AI Output Pre-Publication Verification for High-Stakes Claims

Require human checks of AI-generated numbers, legal citations, regulatory references, and other high-stakes claims before external publication or regulatory submission. Keep verification checklists and auditable approval records.

SCT

Sector-Specific & Emerging

5 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-004
medium

Insurance Sector AI Documentation Standards

Set documentation standards for AI in underwriting, claims, pricing, and fraud detection. Meet applicable state insurance examination expectations, National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) model bulletin requirements, and algorithmic accountability duties.

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.