AI Governance: The Fundamentals of AI Governance

Updated August 2026. Includes the 2026 regulatory changes, with 14 new or rewritten lessons on the EU AI Act, ISO 42001, the NIST AI RMF and the US and China regulatory landscape.

Every company already runs AI, and most of them cannot answer three questions about it: who is accountable, what could go wrong, and what the law requires. AI governance is the discipline that answers them. It is now a legal obligation in the EU, a purchasing requirement for large customers, and a condition for keeping AI systems in production.

This course teaches you how to govern AI systems in an organization, from principles to working documents. No data science, no law degree, no code.

What you will be able to do

• Explain the structure of AI governance: principles, roles, policies, controls and documentation

• Identify ethical, legal and operational risks in an AI system and decide which ones matter

• Apply the EU AI Act, GDPR, ISO 42001 and the NIST AI RMF to real cases, and know when each one applies

• Define roles and responsibilities for AI oversight, including who signs off and who monitors

• Implement controls for explainability, traceability and accountability

• Evaluate AI use cases in finance, healthcare and public administration with the templates from the course

• Build the documents an auditor or a regulator will ask for: inventory, risk register, policy, model documentation

What you download
Every chapter ships with working files: an AI system inventory template, a risk assessment matrix, an AI policy template, a model documentation sheet, role-play scenarios, and checklists for traceability and compliance.

What makes this course different
Most AI governance training explains the principles and stops. This course spends most of its time on how to apply them: which document to write first, who has to sign it, and what to do when a system fails a check. The regulatory chapter covers the EU AI Act after the 2026 changes, and the comparison with ISO 42001 and NIST shows you how to build one governance program that satisfies all three.

Who this is for
Compliance, legal, risk, IT and business professionals who are responsible for AI in their organization, or who will be soon. Also for consultants and public sector staff who need to assess AI systems. No technical or legal background required.