What is AI Governance & Assurance?
Governance sets the what and the who: the policies and oversight for responsible AI.
Assurance is the how: the operational verification that proves your AI systems are operating safely, generating the audit trails required for "justified confidence."
3FACTOR builds continuous AI management systems that integrate with your existing ISMS, ensuring you are certification-ready from day one.
EU AI Act Readiness
Prepare for strict requirements and avoid fines of up to €35M or 7% of turnover.
ISO 42001 Certification
Build a structured AI management system, seamlessly integrated with your ISO 27001 ISMS.
NIST Alignment
Align your practices with the NIST framework to Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage AI risks.
Shadow AI Risk
Gain visibility and control over ad-hoc AI tools being adopted internally without oversight.
Customer & Investor Trust
Demonstrate documented, responsible AI practices to enterprise buyers and investors.
Continuous Assurance
Monitor for model 'drift' and maintain reproducible evidence of compliance over time.
Most organizations are deploying AI faster than they're governing it. The gap between adoption and oversight is where regulatory, reputational, and operational risk lives.
Marcus Atkins, Director of Compliance Services
The 3FACTOR Approach
- AI governance isn't a bolt-on. It needs to be embedded into how your organization builds, deploys, and monitors AI systems.
- At 3FACTOR, we apply the same structured, evidence-first methodology to AI governance that we use across every compliance engagement, ensuring your AI management system is operational from day one, not shelfware.
- Our program is built on ISO 42001 principles whether or not you pursue certification. If you do certify, you'll already be ready. If you don't, you still get a defensible, operational governance framework that satisfies customers, boards, and regulators.
- Take a look at our 6-stage AI governance process.
The 6-Stage AI Governance Process
AI Landscape & Risk Scoping
Identify all AI systems in use or development, classify risk levels, and define the AIMS boundary.
- Inventory all AI systems, including third-party AI, embedded models, vendor-provided copilots, and internal tools
- Classify AI systems by risk level aligned with ISO 42001 and EU AI Act risk tiers (unacceptable, high, limited, minimal)
- Define the AI Management System scope boundary
- Identify stakeholders, data flows, and decision points across the AI lifecycle
- Map AI governance requirements to existing ISO 27001 controls and NIST AI RMF functions
Identify all AI systems in use or development, classify risk levels, and define the AIMS boundary.
- Inventory all AI systems, including third-party AI, embedded models, vendor-provided copilots, and internal tools
- Classify AI systems by risk level aligned with ISO 42001 and EU AI Act risk tiers (unacceptable, high, limited, minimal)
- Define the AI Management System scope boundary
- Identify stakeholders, data flows, and decision points across the AI lifecycle
- Map AI governance requirements to existing ISO 27001 controls and NIST AI RMF functions
What We Deliver
The 3FACTOR delivery process is engineered to be as smooth as possible, specifically for highly time-constrained and challenging environments. Our AI governance program covers four key deliverables.
AI Governance Readiness Assessment
Understand exactly where you stand. We assess your current AI governance maturity against ISO 42001 requirements and deliver a prioritized roadmap.
- Complete AI system inventory and risk classification, including shadow AI identification
- Clause-by-clause gap assessment against ISO 42001
- Cross-framework alignment check against NIST AI RMF and EU AI Act obligations
- AI risk management maturity evaluation
- Identify governance gaps and quick wins
- Deliver a prioritized, actionable roadmap
Understand exactly where you stand. We assess your current AI governance maturity against ISO 42001 requirements and deliver a prioritized roadmap.
- Complete AI system inventory and risk classification, including shadow AI identification
- Clause-by-clause gap assessment against ISO 42001
- Cross-framework alignment check against NIST AI RMF and EU AI Act obligations
- AI risk management maturity evaluation
- Identify governance gaps and quick wins
- Deliver a prioritized, actionable roadmap
Why organizations choose 3FACTOR
~4–8 Months
Typical delivery timeline for a full AI governance program, plus 2–4 months for ISO 42001 certification
Senior-Led
Delivered by principals, not juniors. No bait-and-switch
Fixed-Price
Clear scope boundaries that protect your budget
Evidence-First
Controls produce audit evidence as a byproduct of BAU
How we help you avoid common AI governance pitfalls
Our tried and tested approach ensures your AI governance journey stays on track.
Common failure modes
Nobody knows what AI is running
Shadow AI proliferates across departments without centralized oversight.
Policies become shelfware
Governance is treated as a static exercise rather than operational controls.
Deployed models degrade silently
Performance drifts over time, turning compliant models into liabilities.
Leadership lacks visibility
The board cannot explain AI decisions to regulators or customers.
How we solve it
Complete AI inventory
We map every AI system, including vendor-embedded tools, and classify risks.
Governance embedded into BAU
Controls are built directly into daily workflows, ensuring continuous compliance.
Continuous monitoring & reporting
We build in drift detection and provide leadership with clear visibility into risk posture.
Our integrated control framework lets you build once and reuse across these frameworks, with no duplicated effort.