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HUMAN-FIRST AI GOVERNANCE

AI GOVERNANCE CHAIN™

Governance instruments, frameworks, and journeys for organizations of every size, from a team of three to a national ministry. Built by a strategist and AI architect with decades of professional experience.

Artificial intelligence does not fail because it is insufficiently intelligent. It fails because it agrees with you.
Browse the Free Library, now with a machine-readable technical layer for engineers: every free instrument, PDF and DOCX, one click →

Start here

Find your situation, get the right free instrument, and see the next step. Every instrument is free, complete, and usable today.

If you are...Start with this free instrumentThen
New to AI governanceThe AI Governance Starter Kit (Day One Guide)Follow the Journey Map
Unsure of your exposureThe Governance Readiness ScorecardGovern-Before-You-Scale Diagnostic
Facing a regulatorThe Regulation-at-a-Glance CardEU AI Act Risk-Tier Decision Card
Worried about AI agreeing too easilyThe AI Sycophancy Risk RegisterThe AI Sycophancy Test Battery
A board member or executiveThe Board-Ready One-PagerThe Pre-Scale Governance Audit
An engineer or architectThe machine-readable schemas and the runnable Sycophancy Test BatteryOpen the technical layer

The problem no one else is governing: AI sycophancy

Most AI governance asks whether a model is accurate, fair, and safe. Almost none asks whether it will tell you the truth when the truth is unwelcome. A model that flatters, caves, and manufactures agreement is a governance failure, and it is the one this channel was built to solve.

AI Sycophancy Risk Register

The eight-pattern taxonomy with detection probes and a fill-in register. Free and complete.

AI Sycophancy Test Battery

Ten ready-to-run prompts with a thirty-point scoring rubric to reveal flattery, capitulation, and fabricated agreement.

Agentic AI Failure Modes Map

Eight failure modes specific to autonomous systems, each with a warning sign and a first-line guardrail.

Proof, not promises

Anonymized before-and-after outcomes from the case library. Each one is a real failure pattern, the instrument that answered it, and the result. The full case library and the ROI and cost-of-inaction model live in the repository.

Micro / Private: the model that agreed its way toward a public failure
A four-person team was days from launching a customer-facing assistant that flattered users instead of informing them. One review session with the free AI Sycophancy Risk Register surfaced the pattern before a single customer saw it. The launch went ahead on time. The cost of prevention was near zero; the cost of the failure it prevented was the brand itself. Read the full case →
Mid / Private: certification readiness in weeks, not months
A 180-person firm faced an ISO/IEC 42001 readiness effort scoped in quarters. Working from the AIMS Starter Kit, the policies, controls, and evidence structure that consume most of a certification calendar were in place within weeks. The audit calendar moved up an entire quarter. Read the full case →
Enterprise / Public: governing what you buy, at national scale
A public institution operated dozens of procured AI systems it had never built and could not inspect. A federated operating model, one accountable owner per system, one register, one review cadence, brought bought AI under the same governance as built AI, across every unit, without halting a single service. Read the full case →
Small / Private: the first hour that saved the flagship client
When a small firm's AI produced a serious customer-facing error, the team ran the First-Hour Runbook: contain, preserve, notify. The incident was closed the same week, the evidence trail satisfied the client's own auditors, and the flagship account renewed. Read the full case →

See the full ROI and cost-of-inaction model →

Free interactive self-assessment

Answer sixteen questions across the four axes of governance. Nothing you enter leaves your browser. You receive a score, a readiness band, and a recommended next step.

The value ladder

The rule that governs everything: the WHAT and the WHY are free. The HOW, the WITH-YOU, and the DONE-FOR-YOU are paid.

Tier 0: Free

0 USD
  • 24 complete governance instruments
  • Frameworks, glossary, maturity model
  • Journey map and self-assessment
Browse the Free Library →

Tier B: Core Governance Kits

1,400 to 2,400 USD
  • AI Ethics Operating Kit
  • AI Risk Management Kit
  • AI Assurance and Audit Kit
See the Core Kits →

Tier C: Flagship Packs

4,400 to 4,900 USD
  • AI-ERF™ Implementation Pack
  • EU AI Act Compliance Pack
  • ISO/IEC 42001 Certification Toolkit
See the Flagship Packs →

Tier D: With you

From 99 USD per month
  • Governance Vault: 4,900 to 29,000 USD per year
  • The Governance Circle: 99 to 299 USD per month
  • Pre-Scale Governance Audit: 35,000 to 120,000 USD
See the programs →

Mathieu K. Gouanou

Decades of professional experience as a strategist, business analyst, and AI architect, with proven mastery of business process re-engineering (BPR) and digital transformation developed across many strategic programs and projects. Member of the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. Author of the AI Governance Emergency Response Framework (AI-ERF)™, the first operational emergency response standard for AI governance. Creator of the AI Sycophancy Risk Register™, the instrument that governs the failure no one else names: artificial intelligence that agrees with you instead of telling you the truth. Architect of the AI Governance Health Score™, the re-runnable measure that keeps governance alive after the project ends, and founder of The Governance Circle, the membership where practitioners keep their governance current.

Creator of the AI GOVERNANCE CHAIN™ body of work: more than forty working governance instruments spanning seven strategic pillars (ethics, risk, strategy, assurance, literacy, human rights, and frontier AI), a taxonomy of thirty named AI risks, a right-sized operating model that serves every organization from a three-person team to a national ministry, and the quarterly State of AI Governance publication. Built on the disciplines the market runs on: the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act, ISO/IEC 42001, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.

The Free Library

Twenty-four complete governance instruments, each with its purpose explained, downloadable in PDF and DOCX. No registration. No email wall.

Open the Free Library →