ResourcesGuide
AI system inventory — a starter sheet
A short template for listing every AI-assisted workflow you already run — including the vendor tools people forget to mention.
Last reviewed
MikeFounder & developer
- AI governance
- Compliance
- Workflow
Most governance programmes stall because nobody has a honest list of what is already in use. Start there.
What belongs on the list
| Column | Capture |
|---|---|
| Name | What people call it day to day |
| Owner | Named human, not a team label |
| Role | Provider, deployer, or both |
| Where it runs | Internal, customer-facing, vendor SaaS |
| Data it touches | Categories, not a data dump |
| Human oversight | Who can stop, edit or refuse an output |
| Status | Live, pilot, retired |
How to fill it without theatre
- Walk one real week of work — not the architecture diagram.
- Ask each team what they paste into chat tools when the official path is slow.
- Include copilots bundled inside email, IDE, CRM and support suites.
- Mark unknowns as unknowns. A blank with an owner beats a confident fiction.
If a tool can change a decision, a message, a price or a record, it belongs on the sheet — even when a vendor “handles compliance”.
What to do next
- Rank live items by how much they touch people or money.
- Pair each high-stakes row with the regime that likely applies (UK, EU, US state, China, other).
- Close the highest evidence gaps first.
The companion maps: EU AI Act at a glance and UK AI orientation.
Also in the library.
- EU AI Act at a glanceA plain map of who the Act covers, the risk tiers that matter, and what to do first — without drowning in legal theatre.
- UK AI rules — a plain orientationThere is no single UK AI Act. Here is how regulators actually approach AI today, and what a sensible operator does first.
- A short workflow audit checklistTwelve questions that surface the real inefficiency before anyone picks a tool, a model, or a rewrite.