Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s already embedded in the systems shaping our economy, our security, and our daily lives. But with this transformation comes new risk, and with great power comes a new kind of responsibility. From biased algorithms to opaque decision-making, AI carries risks that can damage trust, expose organizations to liability, and even cause harm to individuals.
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed the AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) to provide organizations with a structured approach to building and deploying trustworthy AI. The NIST AI RMF is a comprehensive guide for making AI trustworthy, transparent, and accountable. Published as NIST AI 100-1, the framework lays out a lifecycle for managing AI risks and building systems that don’t just work—but work responsibly. That’s where BigID steps in, helping organizations operationalize these principles with data intelligence and automation.
Let’s unpack the four core functions of the AI RMF and explore how BigID helps organizations put them into practice.
The Four Core Functions of the NIST AI RMF
1. Govern: Setting the Ground Rules
The Govern function is the foundation of the framework. It requires organizations to define their structures, processes, and roles to effectively manage AI risks. This involves assigning accountability, establishing governance policies, setting ethical guardrails, and ensuring that AI aligns with organizational values and regulatory requirements.
BigID enables organizations to inventory AI systems, surface sensitive data, and map risks across datasets. With policy automation and continuous monitoring, BigID enables governance to be measured and audited, ensuring organizations remain aligned with evolving AI regulations.
2. Map: Understanding Context and Risk
Before diving into training models, the Map function calls for understanding the ecosystem in which AI will operate. Who are the stakeholders? What are the intended uses and potential misuses of the system? What data sources are being used, and do they introduce bias, privacy issues, or compliance risks?
BigID automatically discovers and classifies data across structured and unstructured sources, helping organizations understand data being used to train, test, and run AI systems. By mapping data flows, BigID provides the contextual lens needed to evaluate bias, fairness, and privacy risks before they escalate.
3. Measure: Evaluating Trustworthiness
The Measure function emphasizes continuous evaluation: how fair, accurate, explainable, and secure is the AI system in practice? This requires developing metrics, benchmarks, and risk indicators, as well as performing impact assessments to measure whether the AI system performs as intended and without harmful side effects.
BigID integrates privacy, security, and governance metrics directly into AI workflows. With automated Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) and AI risk assessments, you can analyze the data powering AI. From contextual risk scoring to bias detection in data, BigID equips organizations with the quantitative insights needed to measure compliance and trustworthiness consistently.
4. Manage: Acting on Risk
The last function, Manage, focuses on taking action: monitoring AI in production, mitigating risks, and continuously improving systems over time. This includes incident response, risk communication, and adapting to new regulations or emerging threats.
BigID operationalizes risk response with automated remediation workflows, policy enforcement, and customizable reporting. With BigID’s data control capabilities, organizations can detect policy violations, prevent unauthorized use of sensitive data, and respond quickly to incidents. Whether it’s data minimization, retention enforcement, or breach response, BigID equips teams with the tools to dynamically manage AI-related risks.
Building AI We Can Trust
As AI adoption accelerates, those who treat risk management as a strategic advantage—not just a compliance burden—will be the ones who succeed in building AI systems that people trust.
AI promises transformative benefits—but only if organizations can earn trust and minimize risk. The NIST AI RMF provides the structure. BigID provides the tools. Together, they give governance, privacy, and security leaders the confidence to build AI responsibly, at scale, and with trust. Book a demo today!
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