Assessments · AI board direction
AI Board Direction takes a board from “what AI do we use?” to a resolved position: where it wants AI, what it will not accept, what must come back to it, what information may go where, what harm it will not tolerate, what it expects to hear, and who is accountable. Facilitated by the board advisor and the general counsel; Triodian supplies the steps and records the positions.
Not legal advice. Triodian records positions and states what documents show. Whether anything meets a legal obligation, and what your duties require, are questions for your counsel.
The question it answers
How it runs
Every position is proposed by a director, the chair, the CEO or, in connected mode, the CRO. The board advisor, the general counsel and Triodian explain, answer questions and record. Nothing is left blank: a position the room cannot settle is recorded as not set, with an owner and a date.
B0
Scope, mode and the privilege position. A short director briefing, with a record that each director has read it.
B1
A factual inventory, ten to twenty lines, with each use’s authority level and whether it makes decisions about individuals.
B2 to B8
Goals and posture by area, red lines, decisions reserved to the board, confidential information, harm not tolerated, what to report, and who is accountable. Each recorded with who proposed it.
B9
The board resolves, amends or returns. The chair records the resolution, the review interval and the events that reopen it.
Two modes
The mode is chosen at set-up from the company’s regulatory position, and it fixes once the first inventory line is recorded.
Standalone
The ten steps produce the whole appetite, in plain words: an AI risk appetite statement, an acceptable-use policy outline, a board minute, a 90-day action list and an automated-decision worklist for counsel. The confidentiality position feeds a later AI Confidentiality Exposure Assessment.
Connected
The steps produce seven board directions that the AI Risk Appetite engagement must stay within. Each appetite position is checked against them; one that goes past a direction needs a reason and a board revisit before it can join the working appetite. After approval, the board sees its positions and the measures in use at each meeting.
The posture scale
Posture is the board’s appetite for AI in an area. In connected mode it caps the authority ceiling the appetite may set there: an area marked Cautious, for example, allows AI that assists or recommends, but not AI that decides.
| Posture | What the board is saying |
|---|---|
| Avoid | We do not want AI used in this area beyond what assists a person, for now |
| Cautious | We accept AI that assists or recommends. A person decides |
| Open | We accept AI that decides within stated limits, where we can see what it did |
| Pursue | We want AI used here and accept that it may act with less oversight, within our red lines and reserved decisions |
What you provide, and what you get
Requested through the general counsel before the workshop: the risk appetite or risk register, delegations of authority, board charters, the privacy policy, any AI or acceptable-use policy, the AI tools in use, and existing incident and loss thresholds. None needs to contain client data or personal information; uses and information are described by kind.
The board gets
Counsel produces
Who does what
| Party | Role | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|
| The board | Decides every position. Resolves the statement or the directions. The chair records the resolution. | Positions come from directors and management, no one else. |
| CEO, or the accountable executive | Supplies the inventory. Proposes positions with the board. Owns the 90-day action list. | Cannot record the resolution. |
| General counsel | Acts as counsel: answers the legal questions, advises on what the board must set, drafts the policy. | Proposes no position on the board’s behalf. |
| Board advisor | Facilitates: the agenda, the pre-read, the workshop and the minute. Optional: we can work with yours. | Proposes no position. Gives no legal advice. |
| Triodian | Supplies the ten steps, the scales and the position file. Records positions and runs the consistency checks. | States no view on what the appetite should be, or whether it meets any obligation. |
We work with large law firms and board risk advisers in alliance with Triodian, or with yours.
Where it stops
What the company is obliged to have, whether a position meets that obligation, and what directors’ duties require are questions for counsel. Legal questions are logged in writing.
Starting positions come from the company’s own documents. Triodian and the board advisor record; they do not say where a position should be set.
The framework records facts about AI use and the board’s positions. No personal information or confidential document enters it.
Complete, ordered, consistent, testable, owned, covered and referred. A failed check goes back to the CEO and the chair; Triodian does not resolve it.
The app
One engagement per deployment. The ten steps, each opening to show what is recorded; the save rules enforced on the server, so only a director, the chair, the CEO or the CRO can propose and only the chair can resolve; the director briefing, with each director’s answers private to them and the facilitator; the matter brief loaded from the AI Obligations Atlas; and the consistency checks run as positions change. In connected mode it issues the board directions the AI Risk Appetite app reads.
Available now, and open source under Apache 2.0: free to self-host. The demo opens on a worked example; ask us for the demo sign-in. The worked example uses a fictional food manufacturer in standalone mode.
Fees
Each engagement is a fixed fee, agreed before it starts. The fee covers the engagement run in the app suite with your general counsel and board adviser, the independent check and the hand-over. Legal advice is your counsel's, billed by them.
| Engagement | Shape | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| AI Obligations Atlas | Web app, REST API and MCP server | Free |
| AI Board Direction | One workshop and one board meeting | A$30,000 |
| AI Risk Appetite | Two board sessions | A$45,000 |
| AI Confidentiality Exposure Assessment | Two weeks, through counsel | A$40,000 |
Fees are fixed at engagement for large organisations, exclude GST or VAT and travel, and are reviewed each quarter. Scope and fee for smaller organisations on request. The same engagements are priced in Australian, Singapore and Canadian dollars and in euros on each jurisdiction page.
Get in touch
Whether the board has said where it wants AI, what it rules out and what it expects to hear, and whether the automated-decision requirements starting in December reach you.
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