#governance · 7 essays
AI Governance — a Deadline, Not a Committee
For years, AI governance was a slide near the end of the deck. Then the dates arrived: Texas TRAIGA in force, Colorado's ADMT law landing January 2027, the EU AI Act's obligations on a published clock. These essays argue one thing from several directions: governance is not the committee that says no — it is the intake, ownership, and evidence discipline that lets AI ship and survive an audit.
Start with AI Governance Stopped Being Optional for the deadlines and the NIST AI RMF safe-harbor argument, then the pilot factory essay for what governing your own AI work back into production looks like. The readiness assessment scores governance as one of its four domains — present tense only.
Your Business Unit Became an AI Pilot Factory — How to Govern It Back Into Production
Monthly workshops, showcase meetings, thirty agents that are really system prompts, nothing live. How a business unit governs its own AI work into production.
AI in Name Only — How Enterprises Pick Flagship AI Projects That Aren't AI
Enterprise AI portfolios fail before day one — at selection, where every incentive rewards relabeling analytics as AI. Here's the test, and the fix.
Your AI Agents Are Stalled at IT — The Access Layer Nobody Built
Your tier model is published, but agents have nothing to connect to. Why direct database access fails, and how a thin, governed access layer fixes it.
The Hackathon-to-Production Gap — A Paved Road for the AI Agents Your Business Units Already Built
Business units built AI agents at a hackathon. Now they're stalled at IT. Why the fix is a paved road: tiered access, published SLAs, and real dates.
AI Governance Stopped Being Optional — TRAIGA, Colorado ADMT, and the EU Clock
Texas TRAIGA is in force, Colorado's ADMT law lands January 2027, EU dates are set. Why NIST AI RMF is the safe-harbor move that survives it all.
Do You Need a Chief AI Officer?
76% of organizations now have a Chief AI Officer, up from 26% a year ago. When the role earns full-time headcount, when fractional wins, how to decide.
Everyone Has AI Agents. Almost Nobody Has Them in Production.
Most enterprises have adopted AI agents. Few run one in production — and Gartner expects 40% of agentic projects canceled by 2027. Mind the gap.