Enterprise AI: 5 non‑negotiable guardrails
Permissions, logs, data, evaluation, and human validation: a simple baseline to avoid chaos.
Enterprise AI requires guardrails from day one. Here are 5 non-negotiable practices to avoid chaos.
1. Clear scope: define which data can be used by AI (e.g., public data, anonymized data, non-sensitive internal data). Everything outside scope is forbidden by default.
2. Sources of truth: one single source of truth per data type (e.g., CRM for customers, ERP for inventory). AI must never create duplicates or diverging versions.
3. Access rights: AI must respect the same permissions as human users. If a user doesn’t have access to data, AI doesn’t either. Regular access audits.
4. Traceability: all AI usage must be logged (who, what, when, why). Logs retained for at least 12 months, accessible for audit. In case of incident, we must be able to trace the origin.
5. Human validation: critical decisions (e.g., credit approval, medical diagnosis) must always go through human validation. AI proposes, human validates.
These 5 guardrails form a simple but effective baseline. Without them, AI becomes a risk rather than an asset.