🏛️ Governance & Human Commitment

The AI Capability Framework is structured around four core pillars, with the first focused on Governance and Human Commitment. This pillar addresses the extent to which an institution has established the necessary oversight, ethical grounding, and leadership structures to support responsible AI adoption. It is underpinned by four key indicators: regulatory and ethical standards, governance and risk management, code of conduct and privacy protection, and leadership capability.

Together, these are further operationalised through ten sub-indicators incorporating the extent to which a compliance function exists to monitor adherence to both national and international AI regulations. Ethical guidelines for the use and deployment of AI also form part of this pillar, along with the institution’s consideration of the sustainability impacts of its AI initiatives.

Governance structures that explicitly address AI matters, such as advisory bodies or formal inclusion of AI in board-level discussions, are covered as well as risk assessment processes to incorporate AI-specific concerns, particularly around algorithmic bias, accountability, and unintended consequences. Institutions are also expected to have ethical procurement standards for AI technologies and services.

Additionally, sub-indicators in this pillar look at whether a code of conduct exists to guide responsible AI use across the institution, alongside robust data protection policies that reflect AI-specific privacy risks. Finally, the extent of strategic leadership and planning, as well as the availability of AI training and professional development to build institutional capacity is incorporated into this pillar.