Inventory systems and use cases
Record the business purpose, owner, users and affected parties, data, models, prompts, connectors, tools, identities, autonomy, geography, vendors, controls, releases, incidents, and retirement state. A vendor license count is not an AI inventory.
Risk-tier the use context, not only the model. A summarizer, hiring assistant, and autonomous support agent using the same model can require very different controls.
Control data and capabilities
Approve connectors and sources by purpose. Apply least privilege, sensitivity controls, tenant boundaries, data-loss prevention, retention, and eDiscovery requirements where applicable. Separate document content from authority and review external sources for injection risk.
For agents, define tool schemas, identities, destinations, approvals, step budgets, and kill switches. Require exact human confirmation for consequential side effects.
Require evidence through the lifecycle
Connect risk to control, implementation, test, result, finding, exception, approval, release, monitoring, incident, and residual-risk decision. Reassess material changes to models, prompts, connectors, tools, data, users, geography, or purpose.
Measure supported task outcomes, corrections, accessibility, security events, complaints, incidents, cost, and user confidence. Adoption activity alone does not prove value or safety.
Make accountability visible
Assign business, product, data, security, privacy, responsible-AI, legal/compliance consultation, independent review, incident, and residual-risk roles. Preserve reasoned overrides, expiring exceptions, dissent, appeals, and retirement decisions.
Decision framework
| Area | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle | Required evidence |
| Intake | Purpose, owner, data, users, impact, vendor, autonomy, and alternatives |
| Build/configure | Connector, prompt, tool, identity, test, and threat-model versions |
| Release | Evaluation, findings, approval, exception, rollback, and user communication |
| Operate/retire | Monitoring, incidents, changes, access removal, retention, deletion, and lessons |
Practical checklist
- Inventory each use case and agent capability
- Approve data and connector boundaries
- Separate duties for higher-risk releases
- Link controls to tested evidence
- Measure outcomes instead of prompt volume
- Reassess material changes and verify retirement
First-party sources
Source status last checked 2026-09-11. Links can change after publication.