The Real Question to Ask About AI Governance
Executive Take
Executives should audit whether their AI "governance" function has actual stop-authority independent of product/revenue teams, not just dashboards and advisory committees — if the answer is unclear, the program is paperwork, not protection against regulatory or reputational risk.
Executive Summary
An MIT Sloan Management Review op-ed by Adobe's AI and data governance lead argues most enterprise AI governance programs lack a clear authority to shut down a harmful AI model. Adobe addressed this via a federated governance model with named system owners and a centralized steering committee reporting into trust and security, independent of product teams, citing pressure from the EU AI Act.
Why It Matters
This is most relevant to AI and Technology leaders building governance programs, and to GCC leaders overseeing distributed AI deployments, because regulators like the EU under the AI Act will demand named accountability, not just documentation, when something goes wrong.