Introducing the AI Risk Assessment Template
July 27, 2023•3 min read
As the use of AI continues to expand in businesses, so does the need for governance best practices to adapt to handle these new risks. Many Transcend customers are asking us how to best set up foundational AI governance programs.
Earlier this month, we released our AI Governance Roadmap which outlines the approach we’re taking to ensure the responsible adoption of new large language model-based tools. Today, we’re announcing a new AI Risk Assessment Template available within Transcend Assessments.
While we believe the most important aspect of AI governance is at the data layer (more on that from us shortly), this additional policy element can help companies set the strategic foundations for safer AI deployment.
For many organizations, the legal, reputational, and financial risks are all top concerns for AI deployments. Compliance leaders know they need to move fast, and want to be sure they are assessing AI risk thoroughly based on various frameworks and emerging policies.
In response to this, we’re adding a robust AI Risk Assessment Template to Transcend Assessments, specifically designed for AI projects, implementations, and more.
These assessments are particularly important when companies are considering AI initiatives that process sensitive personal information or use personal information to conduct automated decision-making. Transcend customers will now be able to easily catalog AI projects, assess the risks of AI implementations, and monitor the business’s various AI approaches.
This template will be available from the Transcend Admin Dashboard for Transcend Assessments users from tomorrow.
One of the biggest challenges when assessing AI risk is ensuring alignment to the sheer number of frameworks, emerging laws, existing regulations, and opinions on AI governance popping up globally.
To help here, the Transcend AI Risk Assessment Template already incorporates and aligns to the definitions and recommendations of the IAPP Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional Body of Knowledge, the proposed EU AI Act, the NIST Risk Management Framework, what we know about CCPA's automated decision-making requirements, and the OECD framework.
It’s also flexible enough to allow organizations to collect additional information, evaluate risks based on their internal risk scoring criteria, and evolve with new requirements. Since we’re obsessed with making governance easy, we plan to update the AI Risk Assessment Template as new regulations and standards emerge.
As a lawyer and a head of governance myself, I value the role of assessment tooling, and risk assessments are a powerful foundational component of comprehensive AI governance programs. These assessments are most impactful however when combined with true technical observability, governance, and controls at the data layer. This has always been true for privacy and will be felt even more acutely as governance leaders grapple with AI.
One of our founding principles of Transcend is to enable enterprise-grade companies to ensure that governance is happening at the code layer. Policies and frameworks are necessary, but not sufficient for modern data governance. So stay tuned as we continue to unveil the high-priority elements from our roadmap.
We are excited to help companies more easily work through their AI assessments and to set them up to ensure that their written policies are truly enacted at the data layer to drive incredible business outcomes.