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THE ALTERLAYER 7-WEEK PLAN

Put AI Governance Into Operation in 7 Weeks

A practical operating plan for moving from AI visibility to ownership, decisions, actions and durable governance records.

Discover → Govern → Record

Alterlayer — Enterprise AI Operating Layer

What seven weeks are for

AI governance does not need to start with a large transformation programme.

Most organizations already have pieces of AI governance: policies, spreadsheets, security reviews, data governance processes, risk controls, project documentation or responsible AI principles.

The problem is often operational.

What AI exists? Who owns it? What needs attention? Who reviews it? Who decides? What actions follow? And where is that history retained?

The purpose of this seven-week plan is to establish a minimum operating foundation around those questions.

After seven weeks, aim to have:

Visibility
A usable view of the AI that actually needs to be governed.
Ownership
A named person accountable for each governed AI Object.
Governance
A repeatable way to review situations and make decisions.
Action
Clear follow-up when governance requires something to happen.
Record
A durable history of important reviews, decisions and actions.
Operating rhythm
A way to handle subsequent change rather than treating governance as a one-off exercise.

Weeks 1–2: DISCOVER

Establish what you actually need to govern.

Don't begin by trying to catalogue everything.

Start with the AI initiatives, applications, use cases, models and agents that matter enough to require ownership or a governance decision.

Inputs

  • Existing inventories
  • Excel/CSV lists
  • Project portfolios
  • AI policies and assessments
  • Microsoft or other enterprise signals
  • Interviews with business and technology teams
  • Known AI applications, use cases, models and agents

Work

Collect relevant observations.

Determine whether each observation points to something already known, something that should be merged, something irrelevant, or a potential new governed AI Object.

Human decisions

Ignore → Investigate → Merge → Create

Discovery should produce signals for human reconciliation — not automatically create governance truth.

Output

A first usable set of AI Objects representing the things the organization has decided to govern.

End-of-week questionCan we identify the AI that matters without pretending our inventory is already complete?

Weeks 3–4: OWN & GOVERN

Make responsibility explicit.

An inventory is not yet an operating model.

Every governed AI Object needs clear accountability.

For each priority AI Object, establish:

Owner
Who is accountable for this AI Object?
Reviewer
Who provides the relevant governance judgment?
Decision responsibility
Who has authority to make the consequential decision?
Review context
Why does this AI Object require attention now?
Relevant controls
What organizational expectations need to be evaluated?

Do not begin by designing complex approval chains.

Start with the minimum governance structure necessary to make responsibility and decision-making explicit.

Output

A governed AI portfolio where priority AI Objects have identifiable ownership and a workable review/decision path.

End-of-week questionIf an important AI issue appeared tomorrow, would we know who owns it and how a decision should happen?

Weeks 5–6: DECIDE & RECORD

Run governance on real situations.

The operating model becomes meaningful when actual governance work passes through it.

Choose a small number of real AI Objects requiring attention and run the process.

Review

Capture the relevant situation, evidence and reviewer judgment.

Decision

Record the consequential human decision separately from the review.

Actions

Turn the decision into explicit follow-up where necessary.

Who needs to do what?

Governance Record

Retain the important context:

  • What was reviewed?
  • Who participated?
  • What was decided?
  • What actions followed?
  • When did it happen?

The objective is not documentation for its own sake.

It is to make an important organizational question answerable later:

Six months from now, can we establish who decided what, on which situation, and what happened next?

Week 7: OPERATE

Governance starts when the project ends.

AI changes.

Purpose changes. Models change. Providers change. Capabilities change. Agents receive new authority. Business context changes.

The governance model therefore needs a way to distinguish ordinary operation from change that deserves renewed attention.

Establish the operating rhythm

  • Review outstanding governance actions.
  • Identify AI Objects requiring future review.
  • Define how material changes are surfaced.
  • Determine who handles new observations.
  • Keep ownership current.
  • Retain subsequent decisions in the governance history.

The shift

Before

Inventory → assessment → document → forgotten.

After

AI Object → ownership → review → decision → action → record → change → review again.

End-of-week questionCan this governance model continue operating without restarting the project every time something changes?

The operating model

What you are building

DISCOVER
  1. OBSERVATION
  2. AI OBJECT
GOVERN
  1. OWNER
  2. REVIEW
  3. DECISION
  4. ACTIONS
RECORD
  1. GOVERNANCE RECORD
  2. CHANGE / MONITORING

The objective is not to build another AI register. It is to establish a repeatable operating chain from visibility to accountability, decision and record.

Start from where you are

You do not need to start from zero.

“We have almost nothing.”

Start with a small number of important AI initiatives.

Don't attempt enterprise-wide completeness before establishing how ownership and decisions will work.

“We already have Excel, policies and an AI inventory.”

Good.

Use them as inputs rather than replacing them immediately.

The next question is whether the inventory is connected to ownership, reviews, decisions, actions and change.

“We already use governance platforms.”

Don't create another system of record unnecessarily.

Determine what those systems already do well and where AI-specific operating work actually needs to live.

Ready to apply the plan?

Use the 7-Week AI Governance Implementation Checklist to work through the operating cycle step by step.

Open the Implementation Checklist

Governance needs somewhere to operate.

Policies define expectations. Existing enterprise systems retain valuable data and processes.

Alterlayer is designed to provide an Enterprise AI Operating Layer where AI Objects, ownership, reviews, decisions, actions and governance records remain connected as AI evolves.

Discover → Govern → Record

Explore Alterlayer

alterlayer.com/ai-governance