AI Governance Readiness
Do you know how AI is being used across your organisation, and whether your governance is keeping pace?
An AI Governance Readiness Review gives boards and executive teams an independent, evidence based view of AI use, governance gaps, and risk exposure across their organisation.
Is Your Organisation's AI Use Outpacing Its Governance?
Artificial intelligence is being adopted across New Zealand organisations at pace. Staff are using AI tools to draft documents, analyse data, support customer interactions, and automate decisions, often without formal policies, defined accountability, or board level visibility.
For boards and executive teams, this creates a governance gap that carries real consequences. Regulatory exposure under the Privacy Act 2020, reputational risk from AI generated errors or bias, and liability arising from undisclosed AI use in decision making are no longer theoretical risks.
An AI Governance Readiness Review from Ethos Advisory gives your board an independent, structured view of where your organisation stands, and what needs to change.
What an AI Governance Readiness Review Involves
The Ethos Advisory AI Governance Readiness Review is an independent assessment designed for New Zealand boards and senior leadership teams who need a clear, jargon free picture of their AI governance position.
The review covers four areas:
AI Usage Mapping
The review identifies where AI tools and systems are currently in use across your organisation, including tools adopted informally at team level that may not be visible to leadership. Informal adoption outside any policy is a common blind spot, and it is often the first thing a board needs sight of.
Governance Structures and Accountability
The review assesses whether your board and executive team have the oversight mechanisms, roles, and accountability structures in place to govern AI responsibly. This includes whether AI decisions can be traced, challenged, and explained.
Policies, Controls and Data Handling
The review examines existing AI policies, or establishes their absence, against the Privacy Act 2020 and recognised international practice. A policy that gives operational guidance to staff is not the same as one that gives a board a basis for oversight, and the difference matters
Risk Exposure Analysis
The review identifies specific operational, legal, and reputational risks arising from current AI use and governance gaps, and assess the organisation’s exposure in the context of its sector, size, and stakeholder obligations.
What Your Board Receives
At the conclusion of the review, you receive:
An independent AI governance assessment report written for board-level consumption
Clear identification of governance gaps, risks, and their likely consequences
Practical, prioritised recommendations for governance structures, policies, and controls
A board-ready briefing document outlining key findings and proposed next steps
The report is designed to be read and acted on by directors and executives, not handed to IT.
Who This Service Is For
The AI Governance Readiness Review is appropriate for New Zealand organisations where one or more of the following applies::
- AI tools are in use across teams without central oversight or a governing policy
- The board wants an independent view of AI risk exposure before broader AI adoption
- A governance gap has been identified, by internal audit, a regulator, or the board itself
- The organisation is subject to obligations under the Privacy Act 2020, sector specific regulation, or public accountability requirements
- Leadership wants to understand its governance position before committing to a full implementation programme
Not sure whether you need this yet?
Ten questions to surface the AI governance conversations your board may not have had. No score, no data stored, about two minutes.
Where governance arrangements are already in place and the question is whether they are working, an AI Governance Assurance review is the better fit.
Understand your organisation’s AI risk before it becomes a board problem.