AI governance becomes difficult when important choices are scattered across tickets, chats, meetings, and individual memory. A decision log creates a durable record of material changes, approved exceptions, human overrides, and the evidence used to support them.
Record decisions that change risk
Capture decisions about new use cases, model or vendor changes, data changes, control exceptions, expanded user groups, human-review requirements, incidents, and temporary workarounds. Routine operational events do not all need governance records, so define a threshold for what is material.
Capture the reasoning, not just the outcome
A useful entry identifies the decision, owner, date, affected system or use case, evidence reviewed, known uncertainty, alternatives considered, conditions, and review triggers. This makes later review more useful than a simple approved or rejected label.
Connect overrides to oversight
When a person overrides an AI-supported result in a process where overrides matter, record enough context to understand why. Repeated patterns can reveal unclear policy, weak model performance, poor workflow design, or a legitimate need for human judgment.
Use logs as governance evidence
NIST AI RMF 1.0 organizes AI risk management around Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage, and its Manage guidance emphasizes documented risk responses and ongoing monitoring. Decision logs can support that evidence trail, but they do not by themselves demonstrate compliance or responsible outcomes.
Protect the record
Apply appropriate access, retention, integrity, and privacy controls. Avoid collecting unnecessary sensitive information simply because a log exists.
Related knowledge
Use this with AI Use-Case Approval Records, AI Risk Acceptance Records, AI Change Impact Reviews, and AI Human Oversight Design.
References
NIST AI RMF 1.0 is voluntary and is currently being revised. This resource supports operational governance and does not establish legal compliance or replace qualified legal, regulatory, clinical, financial, employment, safety, accessibility, privacy, or other professional review.