Microsoft

AI Governance and Organizational Architecture

Microsoft

AI Governance and Organizational Architecture

 Microsoft

Instructor: Microsoft

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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level

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7 hours to complete
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Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.
Beginner level

Recommended experience

7 hours to complete
Flexible schedule
Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

  • Microsoft Purview (including AI Hub) and Entra PIM: (Active Guardrails) Enterprise-wide visibility into AI risks and system-enforced data protections

  • Microsoft Service Trust Portal: (Compliance Evidence) Audit reports and AI security attestations

  • Microsoft Viva Insights: (Operational Analytics) Measuring work-patterns and Decision Velocity

  • Microsoft Agent Success Kit: (Adoption Framework) Templates and governance for scaling AI agents

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Assessments

17 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer
Taught in English

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This course is part of the Microsoft AI Transformation Leader Professional Certificate
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There are 9 modules in this course

Most AI governance conversations focus on what happens after deployment—monitoring outputs, managing compliance, responding to incidents. This module addresses the prior question: what does the organization's data environment look like before AI is given access to it, and what will AI surface that current governance structures have not accounted for? The Microsoft Purview AI Hub provides the primary risk signals required for an executive to authorize the consumption of corporate data by AI.

What's included

2 videos2 readings1 assignment

Identifying the risk posture is the diagnostic step. This module addresses the executive's response to that diagnosis—mandating the system-enforced protections that convert identified risks into governed structures. The distinction this module draws is between governance that instructs humans to behave correctly and governance that makes incorrect behavior architecturally difficult. Auto-labeling and Privileged Identity Management (PIM) are the two primary mechanisms through which executives mandate the latter, and understanding when and why to require them is the governance decision this module prepares executives to make.

What's included

2 videos2 readings3 assignments

Boards that hear responsible AI framed as an ethical obligation tend to treat it as a compliance cost. Boards that hear it framed as a structural risk management requirement tend to treat it as a governance investment. This module gives executives the communication framework to present responsible AI principles at the board level in the language boards actually respond to—risk, liability, competitive positioning, and fiduciary accountability—and to secure the sponsorship that makes responsible AI governance operational rather than aspirational.

What's included

2 videos2 readings1 assignment

Board sponsorship creates the authority for responsible AI governance. This module addresses what governance looks like in operational practice—a compliance review process that evaluates AI solutions against the eight responsible AI standards before deployment is authorized, and an alignment framework that maps the enterprise AI strategy to Microsoft's published responsible AI policies. The goal is a governance structure that is specific enough to govern real deployment decisions and auditable enough to be presented to regulators, institutional investors, and board audit committees.

What's included

2 videos2 readings3 assignments

An AI Center of Excellence that governs through meetings, guidelines, and manual review processes will always lag behind the pace of AI deployment. This module gives executives the architectural framework to redesign the CoE as a Policy Engine—a governance model where strategic intent is expressed as system configuration rather than advisory guidance, where Purview-driven insights trigger automated governance responses rather than manual reviews, and where the CoE's primary output is not a governance decision but a governance architecture.

What's included

2 videos2 readings1 assignment

An AI decision system without automated accountability is a workflow automation with a governance liability attached. This module gives executives the framework to design AI decision systems where accountability is built into the workflow architecture: automated validation rules that enforce quality standards before AI outputs are acted upon, audit trails that document the accountability chain for every AI-assisted decision, and escalation mechanisms that route exceptions to human judgment without disrupting the automated workflow. The goal is not to slow AI down; it is to make AI-assisted decisions defensible at the speed AI operates.

What's included

2 videos1 reading3 assignments

The measurement gap in most AI programs is not a data availability problem—it is a signal selection problem. Organizations have access to extensive activity data about how AI tools are being used. What they frequently lack is a measurement framework that connects that activity data to the structural outcomes the investment case projected. This module gives executives the signal selection and tracking framework to verify structural ROI—distinguishing between metrics that confirm deployment and metrics that confirm value.

What's included

2 videos2 readings1 assignment

Structural signal underperformance has two possible explanations: the AI is not delivering the capability the investment case projected, or the organization is not adopting the AI in the way the rollout plan assumed. Distinguishing between these two explanations requires a diagnostic framework that identifies the specific organizational and cultural barriers impeding adoption—so that the executive's intervention is targeted at the actual problem rather than the visible symptom. This module gives executives that diagnostic framework, using Viva Insights and Viva Glint as the primary signal sources.

What's included

2 videos1 reading3 assignments

Learners receive a provided Enterprise AI Governance Charter submitted by a fictional governance team and produce an Executive Review and Authorization Memo. The charter is realistic but contains specific gaps that reflect the most common governance design failures at the enterprise level—structural protections that are defined in principle rather than specified as system configuration, a responsible AI compliance review process that lacks trigger criteria and accountable roles, and a measurement framework that tracks activity metrics rather than structural signals. Learners identify what is well-constructed, what is incomplete or misaligned, and the specific changes that must be made before the charter is board-ready, and deliver a final authorization decision.

What's included

3 readings1 assignment

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Instructor

 Microsoft
383 Courses2,709,734 learners

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