Most organisations are experimenting with AI. Very few have built the leadership structures to govern it well. We help you close that gap.
The Challenge
Boards are approving AI strategies. Senior leaders are championing AI adoption. But the accountability structures, risk frameworks, and cultural norms needed to govern AI responsibly are lagging badly behind.
When an AI system makes a consequential decision, who is responsible? In most organisations, nobody can answer that question with confidence. That is a governance failure, not a technology failure.
Leaders focus on the upside of AI and delegate risk management to technical teams. But AI risk is fundamentally a strategic and ethical risk, and it belongs on the leadership agenda.
AI tools change how people work, what decisions get made, and how trust is built or broken. Without intentional cultural leadership, AI adoption creates more problems than it solves.
ISO 42001, the EU AI Act, and emerging national frameworks are reshaping what responsible AI use means legally. Organisations that wait are already behind their better-prepared competitors.
ISO/IEC 42001
ISO/IEC 42001:2023 is the first international standard for AI management systems. It is structured, certifiable, and already being demanded by enterprise procurement teams. Here is what it requires at the leadership level.
The standard requires senior leaders to define and communicate AI policy, assign clear ownership, and demonstrate active involvement in AI governance, not just approve a framework and step back.
Leaders must establish how AI-related risks and impacts are identified, assessed, and managed. This is distinct from cyber risk. It includes ethical, societal, and reputational dimensions that live at the leadership level.
Governance objectives must be set at the organisational level, linked to business strategy, and resourced properly. Leaders own this, not technology teams.
The standard requires defined roles with explicit accountability for AI systems. Ambiguity in who decides, who monitors, and who escalates is a structural failure under ISO 42001.
Leaders are responsible for ensuring the organisation has the competence to use AI responsibly. That means building awareness, capability, and a culture where responsible AI use is a norm, not a rule.
AI governance is not a project. The standard requires leaders to establish mechanisms for ongoing review, learning from incidents, and improving the management system as AI use evolves.
"Organisations where senior leaders actively shape AI governance achieve significantly greater business value than those that delegate the work to technical teams alone."Deloitte State of AI in the Enterprise, 2026
What We Offer
Our work focuses on building the leadership structures, decision frameworks, and organisational culture that ISO 42001 and responsible AI use require. We do not sell technology. We build capability.
A structured review of your organisation's current AI governance posture across six dimensions: policy and accountability, risk awareness, transparency, decision-making structures, culture and ethics, and continual improvement. Delivered as a leadership briefing with a clear gap analysis and prioritised next steps. Can be used as a baseline for ISO 42001 implementation planning.
A structured engagement that prepares your senior leadership team and board for ISO 42001 alignment. Covers policy development, role and accountability design, risk framework alignment, and the cultural and capability requirements the standard places on leaders. Practical, leadership-focused, and designed to complement your technical implementation work.
A half-day session for boards that need to understand their governance obligations in relation to AI. Covers what ISO 42001 requires at the oversight level, how AI risk differs from traditional technology risk, and what questions every board should be asking of management. Practical, non-technical, and grounded in governance principles.
Working with your leadership team to develop the foundational governance documents ISO 42001 requires: AI policy, roles and responsibilities, risk appetite statements, and escalation frameworks. Designed to be practical and owned by your organisation, not lifted from a template.
The "software" of AI governance: building the awareness, norms, and behaviours that allow your people to use AI responsibly. Workshop-based programs for leadership teams and managers, grounded in Linke Leadership's hardware-software model for sustainable organisational capability.
Who This Is For
You are responsible for oversight. You need to understand what AI governance requires of you, what questions to ask of management, and where the real risks sit.
You are accountable for how AI is used in your organisation. ISO 42001 places significant obligations at your level. We help you meet them in a way that strengthens your organisation.
Large enterprises have entire teams working on AI governance. You need a practical, right-sized approach that builds genuine capability without requiring enterprise-scale resources.
The Standards Landscape
ISO 42001 sits within a broader family of standards. Understanding how they relate is the foundation of sound governance planning.
| Standard | What it addresses |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 42001:2023 | The core AI management system standard. Certifiable. Covers policy, accountability, risk, objectives, competence, and continual improvement. |
| ISO/IEC 23894:2023 | Detailed guidance on AI risk management. Provides the framework that ISO 42001 references for identifying, assessing, and treating AI-related risks. |
| ISO/IEC TR 24368 | Ethical and societal considerations for AI. Covers fairness, transparency, human oversight, and the values foundations of responsible AI use. |
| ISO/IEC TR 24027 | Bias in AI systems and AI-aided decision-making. Guidance for assessing and mitigating unfair bias in AI outputs. |
| EU AI Act (2024) | The European Union's binding regulatory framework. High-risk AI system obligations effective August 2026. Relevant for any organisation operating in or supplying to EU markets. |
The AI Governance Readiness Check takes 15 minutes and gives your leadership team a clear picture of where you are strong and where the gaps are.
Request Your Readiness CheckAbout Michael
Michael Linke has spent three decades working with CEOs, boards, and senior leadership teams to build organisations where strategy, systems, culture, and capability reinforce each other. That same model, what Linke Leadership calls the hardware and software of organisations, is exactly what sound AI governance requires.
Michael approaches AI governance not as a compliance exercise, but as a leadership and organisational design challenge. His work draws on ISO/IEC 42001, the broader ISO AI standards family, and the practical realities of building capability in organisations that are moving fast.
He is a graduate of the Harvard Advanced Management Program (AMP 210) and works with organisations across Australia and internationally.
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