AI Governance Engagement
AI Governance Engagement
Four phases. Each phase is independently scoped and produces standalone deliverables. Start with Phase 1 (fixed-fee assessment), keep going only if the risk register justifies it.
Most AI governance engagements stall in one of two places: a “policy” document that nobody reads or enforces, or a tooling project that never actually changed staff behaviour. Our engagement model is built to avoid both. Each phase produces something concrete, usable, and reviewable by your board, your regulator, or your insurer.
Assessment
2 to 4 weeks · Fixed feeWe map your current AI and automation footprint, trace data flows, and score them against the relevant regulatory frameworks (APP 8, OAIC AI guidance, TPB Code 2024 if you are a tax practitioner, AML/CTF requirements for in-scope sectors, APRA or ASIC expectations where relevant).
Deliverables
- Written tool inventory (every AI and automation product currently in use, plus shadow IT we surface)
- Data-flow diagram showing where Tier 2 data physically lives at each step
- Risk register scored High / Medium / Low against each applicable regulatory framework
- Prioritised recommendation list with effort and impact estimates
- Fixed-price quote for any Phase 2 or Phase 3 work, with no obligation to proceed
Most Phase 1 engagements pay for themselves through a single tool consolidation, before any compliance benefit.
Framework
4 to 6 weeks · Fixed feeA written governance framework, designed to be enforced rather than filed. Board-ready, plain English, sized to your organisation. We do not believe in the 80-page policy nobody reads.
Deliverables
- AI Usage Policy (one document, plain English, tested on actual staff)
- Data Classification Rubric (Tier 1 vs Tier 2 with worked examples for your sector)
- Tool Approval Workflow (who signs off when a staff member wants to use a new tool)
- Staff Onboarding Checklist (5 to 10 questions a new hire must answer in their first week)
- Board-ready summary covering obligations, residual risk, and stewardship cadence
Deployment
Scoped after Phase 1Stand up sovereign AI infrastructure for the workflows that justify it. Migrate Tier 2 work off non-compliant tools. Implement audit logging, output validators, and the practical safety rails so staff can use AI safely by default rather than carefully.
Deliverables (engagement-dependent)
- Sovereign LLM endpoint deployment (typically AWS Bedrock ap-southeast-2 or Azure OpenAI Australia East)
- Custom personas tuned to your team structure and regulatory context
- Audit logging for every AI tool call, output, and human approval
- Output validators (regex and rule-based) that catch unattributed figures, unhedged forward-looking statements, and other failure patterns
- Migration playbook for moving sensitive workflows off non-compliant tooling
- Runbooks for the operations team to maintain the deployment
Phase 3 is scoped engagement-by-engagement. Some clients only need Phase 1 plus 2. Others want a full custom deployment. The Phase 1 quote will tell you which group you are in.
Stewardship
Monthly retainer · OptionalAI governance is not a one-time project. Regulations move. Tools change. Staff turn over. Stewardship keeps your posture current without you having to track 14 different regulators and 30 product roadmaps yourself.
Deliverables (per quarter)
- Quarterly compliance review against the live regulatory landscape
- Horizon-scan report (OAIC, AUSTRAC, TPB, ASIC, sector regulators) with assessed impact for your business
- Tool-stack review noting new sovereign options and risks in existing tools
- Immediate alerts on URGENT items between scheduled reviews (no waiting for the next quarter)
- Annual board-pack summarising the year’s governance posture
Stewardship clients also receive priority access to our internal compliance officer persona’s daily horizon-scan output, the same scan that informs our own practice.
Fixed-fee where we can, scoped where we can’t
Phase 1 is always a fixed fee. You will know the cost before we start. Phase 2 is also fixed, quoted off the back of the Phase 1 risk register. Phase 3 is scoped engagement-by-engagement because the work depends entirely on what we found in Phase 1. Phase 4 is a monthly retainer set against the cadence and depth you want.
We do not publish a price list because the right price depends on your sector, your data footprint, and the stage you are at. The Phase 1 quote will be a single number, not a “from X” range. We will tell you in the discovery call whether your situation is more likely to be a 4-figure Phase 1 or a higher-band one.
Honest qualification
Right fit: regulated SMBs and professional-services practices (accounting, legal, financial advice, allied health, real estate) where client-sensitive data passes through AI tooling daily and the regulator either is, or will soon be, paying attention.
Probably not right: very early-stage businesses with little data flowing through AI tools yet; consumer-facing brands whose primary AI use is marketing copy (Tier 1 only); organisations whose AI ambitions are still aspirational rather than operational.
Edge cases worth discussing: firms in the middle of a sector reform (Tranche 2 entities, financial advisers under FASEA changes, health practices under new state privacy rules). Bring the question to the discovery call.
Built first for ourselves
Ascend Solutions is a CPA-led Australian accounting and advisory practice. We are TPB-registered and subject to the same regulatory environment as the clients we advise. Our internal sovereign AI deployment is in daily production use across our practice:
- Nine sovereign personas running on AWS Bedrock ap-southeast-2 (financial control, tax, bookkeeping, marketing, business systems, web/hosting, data analysis, personal assistant, compliance)
- An autonomous compliance officer persona that runs a daily horizon-scan at 06:00 AEST and emails immediate alerts on URGENT regulatory changes
- Period-lock monitoring across every connected Xero and QBO client org, alerting the practice the moment a book is closed
- A client-mail authorisation gate that physically blocks any outbound mail to a recipient outside an approved allowlist
- An audit trail for every AI tool call, every output validator hit, every human approval, persisted to durable storage
- Output validators that catch financial commentary failure patterns (unnamed figures, unhedged forward statements, unattributed recommendations) before they reach a client
When we recommend a control to a client, it is one we are already running. When we say “the policy must be enforceable in code, not just written down”, we are speaking from operating experience, not from a textbook.
Book the discovery call
30 minutes, no charge. We will give you an initial read on your AI governance posture and a clear recommended next step, whether or not you engage us afterwards.
Or call ACT on (02) 6189 2248 or QLD on (07) 3067 2425. Email info@ascendsolutions.com.au.