This chapter is different from the others. Everything before it supports each claim with a source; what follows are my own views. For each part I set out what I consider most important, what I remain uncertain about, where I disagree with common practice, and what I expect next. Where I project a trend, I cite the evidence, but the projection is mine and is labelled as my view. This is where I allow myself to disagree, to doubt and to guess.
What I consider most important in Part I is the word "evidence-producing" in the working definition of Chapter 1. I now think the AI Act matters less as a source of obligations than as a forcing function for a habit good governance should have had anyway: being able to show, from records the system produced while it operated, what it is, what it was meant to do and whether it did it. The Act's articles on risk management, record-keeping and post-market monitoring describe that habit in legal language (1, European Union, 2024). An organisation that builds the habit for its own reasons will find the Act cheap to satisfy; one that builds it for the Act will build it again for DORA and NIS 2.
The other essential idea arrived late: the usage modes of Chapter 2. The distinction between encountering, using and building in AI clears up more confused conversations than any other idea in the book.
Primary topics explored
- Part I: Foundations
- Part II: Sovereignty and suppliers
- Part III: Risk, governance, trust and assurance
- Part IV: Organisation and leadership
- Part V: Experience
- Part VI: Future and conclusions
About AI Governance
AI Governance is Book 2 of The Transformed Architecture. It shows how large European enterprises and public authorities decide what artificial intelligence is used for, classify and manage its risks, meet the obligations of the EU AI Act and its neighbours, choose and contract their suppliers, organise the forums that take decisions, and produce the evidence that shows it is all true.
It builds on the conclusions of Architecture as Code.
Chief risk and compliance officers, AI governance boards, CIOs and chief architects, and senior officials in public authorities.
Gunnar Nordqvist
Conceived, directed and published the books of The Transformed Architecture.
Continue with the full chapter
Chapter 24: Reflections on Each Part in AI Governance gives the detailed explanations, practical examples and implementation patterns behind this summary.
This whitepaper belongs to “Future and Conclusions” and is one of 32 drawn from the manuscript.