AI Governance Fundamentals: Framework, Templates & Sprint

Build an AI governance framework, assess risk, draft policies, and assign accountability with ready-to-use templates

What you’ll learn
Build a complete AI governance framework: inventory, risk assessment, policy, and accountability
Identify and score AI risk across seven categories using a practical scoring matrix
Draft an AI acceptable use policy that any employee can understand and follow
Understand the EU AI Act, US state laws, and the national AI legislative framework
Assign governance accountability using a RACI matrix with named owners for every AI use case
Create a 30-day sprint plan to take your organization from ungoverned to Level 3 maturity
Prepare audit-ready evidence across six categories that regulators and auditors expect
Apply governance to real scenarios through hands-on assignments and AI-powered role plays

Requirements
No technical background required. This course is designed for business professionals, not engineers. You should have a basic understanding of what AI tools like ChatGPT or Copilot do (you do not need to know how they work). Familiarity with your organization’s structure and current AI usage will help you apply the frameworks immediately.

Description
Your organization is already using AI. The question is whether anyone is governing it.

78% of employees admit to using AI tools their employer never approved. Over a third are sharing confidential data with those tools. AI incidents are up 56% year over year. And only 34% of organizations have a governance framework.

This course is designed to help you start closing that gap.

What makes this course different

● Built by someone who has governed AI in regulated industries, not by someone who read about it

● Covers the 2026 White House National AI Legislative Framework alongside existing regulations

● Practical, not theoretical: includes five ready-to-use templates, not just concepts

● Running scenario (Meridian Consulting) that makes every framework concrete and applicable

● Hands-on assignments where you build governance artifacts for your own organization

● AI-powered role play scenarios where you rehearse real governance conversations

● 15 years of regulated finance experience (Citi, JPMorgan, Bloomberg) distilled into a focused course

What you will learn

● What AI governance actually is (and the five things it is NOT)

● The three pillars: visibility, accountability, and oversight

● Seven categories of AI risk with real-world failure examples

● How to build an AI inventory and discover shadow AI

● How to score risk across seven categories using a practical matrix

● How to draft an acceptable use policy your employees can understand and follow

● How to assign accountability using a RACI matrix

● The EU AI Act phased timeline and what it means for your organization

● The three layers of US AI regulation: state laws, federal agency guidance, and the national legislative framework

● NIST AI RMF vs ISO/IEC 42001: which framework to adopt and why

● Industry-specific requirements for financial services, healthcare, legal, HR, and government

● What evidence auditors expect and the minimum viable evidence package

● The five-level AI governance maturity model

● A week-by-week 30-day sprint plan designed to help you move from Level 1 (Unaware) toward Level 3 (Defined)

What you will build

Throughout the course, you will follow Meridian Consulting, a fictional 200-person firm with four ungoverned AI use cases. By the end, you will have worked through governing all four and practiced building governance artifacts for your own organization.

Your governance starter kit (5 downloadable templates)

1. AI Inventory Template (Excel)

2. AI Risk Assessment Template (Excel)

3. Acceptable Use Policy Template (Word)

4. AI Governance RACI Matrix (Excel)

5. 30-Day Governance Sprint Planner (PDF)

Plus 3 bonus resources: Audit Readiness Checklist, Regulatory Quick Reference Guide, and Maturity Model Self-Assessment.

What you will practice

● Assignment 1: Build a governance framework for your organization (inventory, risk score, policy rules, owner assignment)

● Assignment 2: Draft your 30-day governance sprint plan with specific people, timelines, and deliverables

● Role Play 1: Brief your CEO on AI governance requirements (AI-powered, you rehearse the real conversation)

● Role Play 2: Address shadow AI on your team with a defensive VP who sees governance as a threat to productivity

Course format

● ~90 minutes across 15 videos + 1 promo

● Face-on-camera for hooks, scenarios, and recaps

● Professional slides with voiceover for frameworks and data

● Screen recordings walking through each template live

● 2 hands-on assignments with instructor solutions

● 2 AI-powered role play scenarios

● Downloadable templates ready to use the same day

Your instructor

Ritesh Vajariya has spent 15 years in regulated finance at Citi, JPMorgan, and Bloomberg, including work on BloombergGPT. He spent 5 years as an AWS Principal Architect, involved in launching SageMaker and Bedrock. Most recently, he led global generative AI strategy at Cerebras. He has trained over 60,000 professionals across 65+ courses. When he covers compliance, he is drawing from 15 years in regulated financial environments, not reading documentation.

This course is designed for anyone responsible for how AI is used in their organization. If you are a business leader, compliance professional, IT director, HR leader, legal counsel, or anyone who has realized that AI governance is no longer optional, this course provides the frameworks, templates, and practice scenarios to help you get started.

Who this course is for
Business leaders and executives responsible for AI adoption and risk management
Compliance and governance professionals expanding into AI oversight
IT directors and CISOs managing AI tool deployment and security
HR leaders using or evaluating AI for hiring, performance, or workforce decisions
Legal counsel advising on AI-related regulatory requirements
Consultants and advisors helping clients navigate AI governance
Anyone who has realized their organization is using AI without governance and wants to fix it