Who Owns Enterprise AI Governance? A Practical Operating Model
Imagine hiring an employee who can read thousands of documents in seconds, detect patterns across databases, draft customer responses and trigger actions across the business. Now imagine giving that employee access to everything on day one. That is effectively what happens when enterprises deploy AI without clear permissions, data boundaries or accountability. The central governance question is not only what AI can do, but what it can access, what it can disclose and who answers when it fails. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 raises the stakes as AI tools connect to customer records, employee information and internal systems. Ownership of AI governance is therefore a business decision — one that must align privacy, security, risk and operational accountability. In short: A central governance body should set enterprise standards and risk thresholds, while named leaders across business, technology, data, security, legal and privacy functions carry defined deci...