AI operating model
What it means
What is an AI operating model?
An AI operating model is the decision structure that moves AI work from a pilot nobody owns to a process a team runs. It names who chooses what to automate, who reviews a system before customers see it, and who runs it afterwards.
It answers three questions, each with a name rather than a team: who chooses the work, who reviews it, and who runs it.
No standard defines the term, and the three definitions compared here differ in size. McKinsey's covers every decision about staffing, structure, technology and compliance. The UTS Human Technology Institute's "AI governance operating model" has four parts: strategy, AI governance structure, AI governance practices and AI governance enablers. This site uses the narrow version above. Strategy feeds the operating model but is not part of it.
AI governance, as this glossary defines it, covers who may build or buy a system, who signs off before it reaches customers, and who answers when it fails. The operating model adds who chooses the work and who runs it after launch.
An AI management system is a management system for AI: the parts an organisation uses to set its policies and objectives, and the processes to meet them. ISO/IEC 42001 is a standard an organisation can be certified against.
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In practice
Why it comes up
No standard defines the term, so a board that asks someone to build one has no standard definition to hand them.
What to do about it
Answer the three questions for one real system, and write a name beside each answer on one page. Then decide what else the company needs.
The article on how to choose an AI operating model for a mid-size company covers the legal duties and the evidence. It also says how to choose, and where the evidence runs out. Treat any structure sold as the answer with caution, because no source reviewed shows that one structure works best.