The Small Business AI Governance Manual Expanded Edition

Artificial intelligence is already part of everyday business. The challenge for small and medium-sized organisations is no longer simply whether they use AI, but whether they know where it is being used, who is responsible for it, what risks it creates and what evidence exists to demonstrate that it is being governed.

The Small Business AI Governance Manual is a practical implementation guide designed to turn AI governance principles into operational controls.

This substantially expanded edition provides a structured route from discovering existing AI use through to establishing ownership, assessing risk, applying proportionate controls, maintaining evidence, managing change and incidents, reviewing governance effectiveness and recognising when escalation is required.

Written specifically with SMEs in mind, the manual addresses:

• AI discovery and inventory
• Governance ownership and accountability
• AI risk identification and assessment
• Human oversight and consequential decisions
• Supplier and third-party AI governance
• Information and data controls
• Evidence and audit readiness
• AI incident management
• Change control
• Governance review and maturity
• Escalation and governance capability
• EU AI Act readiness
• ISO/IEC 42001 alignment
• SOC 2 control readiness

The objective is not to impose enterprise bureaucracy on smaller organisations. It is to establish proportionate and workable governance that makes AI visible, assigns responsibility, creates useful evidence and supports responsible adoption as AI capability grows.

This is a manual built for implementation, not shelfware.

Whether you are a business owner, director, manager, consultant or professional responsible for introducing AI into an organisation, the objective is to help you move from:

"We use AI."

to:

"We know where we use it, why we use it, who is responsible for it and how we govern it."

From AI use to accountable AI governance.