AI’s Dirty Little Secret: It Needs Boring Old Governance

Happy Information Governance Day! And because no celebration would be complete without mentioning AI, let's talk about the unspoken truth: your shiny new AI tools are only as good as your dusty old governance foundations. The buzzwords may be "machine learning" and "generative AI," but behind every well-behaved AI system are the unglamorous workhorses of information governance: policies, retention schedules, and records inventories.

As organizations race to deploy GenAI and advanced analytics, they need to know what data they have, where it lives, how long they're keeping it, and whether it is appropriate to support an AI model. Without that visibility and lifecycle control, AI becomes a risk amplifier, magnifying regulatory exposure, over-retention headaches, and the unintended ingestion of sensitive or privileged information. AI doesn't inherently know the difference between public marketing materials and confidential client communications. That's your job to tell it.

Regulators aren't impressed by "the algorithm did it." They expect explainability, data provenance, and lifecycle accountability. Fortunately, record retention schedules and records inventories provide the audit-ready documentation you need.

Policies: Teaching AI Some Manners

Every robust information governance program needs policies governing the data lifecycle, including AI-specific guidance. Key policies include:

• Information and records management

• Legal holds

• Data disposal protocols

• AI acceptable use

These policies establish guidelines for oversight, support proper classification, and ensure data doesn't overstay its welcome.

Retention Schedules: Cleaning Out the Data Junk Drawer

Record retention schedules identify what records an organization must keep for legal, regulatory, and operational reasons—and  for how long. They ensure outdated, irrelevant data gets disposed of rather than fed to AI tools that don't know any better. A well-crafted schedule can also flag data requiring enhanced review or exclusion from AI processing entirely.

Records Inventories: Know Where Your Data Sleeps 

Records inventories map your retention schedule to actual storage locations, enabling proper security controls, classification, and compliance with data minimization requirements. A strong inventory helps you identify AI-eligible data sources, exclude high-risk systems, and accelerate AI readiness assessments.

Time to Get Your House in Order

• Update policies to expressly address AI, including whether AI outputs qualify as records and guidance on appropriate use

• No retention schedule? Start one, prioritizing high-risk legal, regulatory, and operational categories

• Have a schedule? Refresh it and incorporate AI-related considerations

• Create or update records inventories and integrate them into your broader governance activities

The bottom line is that, while AI may be the flashy new guest at the party, information governance is still controlling the guest list.