When I take organizations through Six06 Strategy’s AI Adoption Accelerator—a four-week program designed to operationalize AI—the second module is always Governance.

The first module, Readiness, assesses where a business falls on the adoption scale. Governance comes next because it provides the structure most businesses are lacking when they begin their AI journey.

AI Governance is generally defined as the system of rules, practices, and processes that guide how an organization manages and oversees its use of AI. It looks different everywhere, but at a minimum it should include three components:

• AI Charter → Defines the purpose of the AI Council, its long-term goals, and the objectives it aims to achieve.

• AI Council → Provides oversight and leadership, ensuring initiatives follow the Charter’s principles and align with business objectives.

• AI Policy → Translates the Charter’s principles into operational rules and procedures, guiding practical implementation in a compliant and responsible way.

Together, these three create a governance framework that ensures:

• Clear decision-making processes for evaluating tools and use cases.

• Alignment between pilots and business objectives.

• Defined ownership and accountability.

• Standards for benchmarking, compliance, and ethics.

Good governance isn’t bureaucracy—it’s the structure that prevents “random acts of AI adoption” and allows organizations to scale with confidence.

Executive Buy-In Matters

BCG notes that effective governance starts at the top, and the data supports it. Organizations where executives personally use AI, sponsor Councils, and stay engaged in policy creation consistently outperform those that don’t.

Leadership involvement sends a clear message: AI isn’t just an experiment—it’s a priority.

McKinsey puts it more bluntly: “Early generative AI adopters are finding that to capture more value, they need to get more disciplined.”

Discipline is exactly what governance provides. The organizations that move from experimentation to scaled impact are the ones that take the time to design their governance frameworks early—and stick to them.