Your AI Council Is More Than Guardrails

This post originated from a conversation with a business leader championing AI adoption across his division. He was facing resistance from every direction. I asked if he had an AI council in place to support his transformation initiatives. His answer was blunt. “We do not need more people telling us what we cannot do.”

When I spoke with others about their AI councils, I heard a similar theme. Many treat them like insurance policies; committees that handle risk, compliance, and ethics. Policy slides that get filed away once the dust settles.

But a good AI council does more than protect you from what can go wrong. It unlocks what can go right. It bridges ambition and accountability. It gives teams the confidence to move fast, knowing they will not run blind into risks they cannot see.

When I was at IBM, I watched the company stand up its first AI Ethics Board. Ginni Rometty, then CEO, made the stakes clear to the entire organization with the three Principles of Trust and Transparency. AI’s purpose is to augment human intelligence. Data belongs to its creators. Systems must be transparent and explainable. Some wrote this off as corporate PR. But the deeper lesson was this: well-governed AI does not just avoid harm but it builds trust that lets innovation stick.

Today, the best organizations treat governance as an operating discipline. Microsoft wove its Responsible AI Standard directly into product design. VMware’s marketing council started as an experiment and evolved into a team that trains and guides hundreds on safe generative AI use. Khan Academy shaped a framework for AI tutors in classrooms so students, parents, and teachers trust the system and know how it works. And then there is the flip side. Google’s short-lived external AI council failed before it began because it lacked authority, trust, and any real teeth.

So, what does a high performing AI Council do?

Think of your AI council as a practical steering group that keeps AI grounded in your strategy. It does not exist to police every idea. Its role is to give your people clarity on how to move fast without cutting corners they cannot see.

When it works, a council does five things well.

• Defines principles teams can actually follow. IBM turned this into trust standards. Microsoft bakes its standards into checklists and product reviews.
• Reviews high-stakes AI projects before they go live. A healthcare network might vet a diagnostic model to ensure it does not replicate bias that could harm patient care.
• Responds quickly when something goes sideways. This will happen often as we are at the leading edge of innovating with AI. VMware’s cross-functional council handled emerging gen AI risks by putting legal, marketing, and product in the same room.
• Connects teams that otherwise work in silos. Khan Academy’s framework involves educators, parents, and students to keep its AI tutor aligned with learning outcomes.
• Builds AI literacy. The best councils run summits, share prompt libraries, create sandboxes for safe experimentation, and make sure everyone understands what responsible AI looks like in practice.  A council that does not invest in literacy will have to govern blind.

Diverse Voices, Business Led

A strong council mirrors your organization. Bring together legal, IT, HR, risk, product, operations, and customer-facing teams. Each catches blind spots the others miss.

But it is critical that the council should be anchored on your business strategy. Councils led only by legal or IT risk becoming bottlenecks. Strategy leaders or business unit heads should chair the group, so AI stays aligned with what actually creates value. The council should report clearly to the C-suite and, when possible, keep the Board informed. That is how good governance has teeth.

Practical Do’s and Don’ts

A few lessons to keep your council real.

Do:

• Write principles in plain language. If your policy cannot fit on one page, refine it again.
• Tie your council’s mandate to clear lines of authority that reach the C-suite or Board. Governance without leadership support does not stick.
• Prioritize what matters most. Product management has excellent prioritization frameworks that can be put to use. Use risk frameworks to decide which AI use cases need deep review.
• Build feedback loops. Gather lessons from early pilots and update your guidelines as you grow.
• Stay agile. New risks show up every quarter. Do not freeze your playbook in place and instead plan for cadenced updates.
• Communicate broadly and often. Celebrate early wins. Show people that good governance unlocks better, safer work.

Don’t:

• Do not copy someone else’s checklist. Context is everything.
• Do not pack the council with a single view. Diversity of role and perspective is your safety net.
• Do not bury decisions in corporate speak. Communicate in terms your teams understand.
• Do not treat education as optional. Build literacy as a habit.

Putting It All Together

A working AI council does not have to be complicated. Start small but keep it connected to real outcomes. One page of clear principles and a simple charter can do more than a hundred slides. Here is an approach to get you started.

1. Core Principles

Your principles are your North Star. Keep them clear enough to guide daily work. Adapt them to fit your organization’s values and context.

• Human Benefit First: AI must serve people. Design and deploy AI to augment human capabilities, deliver real value, and avoid harm.
• Fairness and Inclusion: Actively check for and reduce bias in data and models. Diverse teams and inclusive design ensure AI works well for everyone.
• Safety, Security, and Reliability: Every AI system must be safe, robust, and resilient. Stress-test, monitor, and maintain security to protect people and data.
• Transparency and Explainability: Communicate clearly how AI works and what it does. Decisions made with AI must be understandable to those affected.
• Accountability and Oversight: Humans remain accountable for AI decisions. The council sets clear roles and processes to review, audit, and act when needed.
• Continuous Learning and Literacy: Invest in building AI fluency at every level. Education and feedback loops keep governance alive as AI use evolves.

2. A Simple Charter

Define your purpose and scope. Be explicit about where the council steps in and how it escalates issues. Include diverse voices such as legal, HR, IT, risk, customer teams, but keep strategy in the chair to align decisions with your business goals. Clarify how decisions connect to the C-suite and Board. Build in practical workflows: meet regularly, keep records, share lessons learned.

• Purpose: Set direction for responsible AI that balances opportunity with risk. Provide practical guidance, oversight, and education.
• Scope: Covers all AI initiatives that materially impact customers, employees, operations, or compliance. Defines risk levels for when council review is required.
• Membership: Cross-functional with representation from strategy, technical, legal, HR, and user-facing teams. Chaired by a business strategy leader to keep governance aligned with growth.
• Authority: Advises and approves high-impact AI projects. Escalates critical risks to the C-suite and Board when needed. Has the mandate to update policies as AI evolves.
• Meetings & Workflow: Regular cadence plus ad-hoc for urgent issues. Tracks decisions, lessons learned and publishes guidance updates.
• Education: Hosts workshops, shares best practices, builds literacy programs, and keeps governance practical for real teams.

3. Measurable Goals and Roadmap

Start small but make your progress visible. While I have broken this down into quarters, the timeline can be in weeks instead of months depending on the size and agility of your organization.

• Quarter 1: Draft and share your charter. Pick founding members. Map where AI is already in play.
• Quarter 2–3: Pilot with a real use case. Learn fast, adjust policies, and celebrate early wins.
• Quarter 4: Scale training, build literacy habits, and update your roadmap for next year.

Good governance is not about slowing teams down. It is how you move from one-off pilots to sustainable AI adoption that stands up to scrutiny.

When you are ready, reach out. I am happy to share my Starter AI Council Toolkit to help you adapt these ideas for your own team.

Good governance is not the department of no. It is your greenlight for AI worth trusting.