From Governance Norms to Enforceable Controls: A Layered Translation Method for Runtime Guardrails in Agentic AI

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Koch, Christopher
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Koch, Christopher
author_facet Koch, Christopher
contents Agentic AI systems plan, use tools, maintain state, and produce multi-step trajectories with external effects. Those properties create a governance problem that differs materially from single-turn generative AI: important risks emerge dur- ing execution, not only at model development or deployment time. Governance standards such as ISO/IEC 42001, ISO/IEC 23894, ISO/IEC 42005, ISO/IEC 5338, ISO/IEC 38507, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework are therefore highly relevant to agentic AI, but they do not by themselves yield implementable runtime guardrails. This paper proposes a layered translation method that connects standards-derived governance objectives to four control layers: governance objectives, design- time constraints, runtime mediation, and assurance feedback. It distinguishes governance objectives, technical controls, runtime guardrails, and assurance evidence; introduces a control tuple and runtime-enforceability rubric for layer assignment; and demonstrates the method in a procurement-agent case study. The central claim is modest: standards should guide control placement across architecture, runtime policy, human escalation, and audit, while runtime guardrails are reserved for controls that are observable, determinate, and time-sensitive enough to justify execution-time intervention.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_05229
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publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle From Governance Norms to Enforceable Controls: A Layered Translation Method for Runtime Guardrails in Agentic AI
Koch, Christopher
Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
Multiagent Systems
Agentic AI systems plan, use tools, maintain state, and produce multi-step trajectories with external effects. Those properties create a governance problem that differs materially from single-turn generative AI: important risks emerge dur- ing execution, not only at model development or deployment time. Governance standards such as ISO/IEC 42001, ISO/IEC 23894, ISO/IEC 42005, ISO/IEC 5338, ISO/IEC 38507, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework are therefore highly relevant to agentic AI, but they do not by themselves yield implementable runtime guardrails. This paper proposes a layered translation method that connects standards-derived governance objectives to four control layers: governance objectives, design- time constraints, runtime mediation, and assurance feedback. It distinguishes governance objectives, technical controls, runtime guardrails, and assurance evidence; introduces a control tuple and runtime-enforceability rubric for layer assignment; and demonstrates the method in a procurement-agent case study. The central claim is modest: standards should guide control placement across architecture, runtime policy, human escalation, and audit, while runtime guardrails are reserved for controls that are observable, determinate, and time-sensitive enough to justify execution-time intervention.
title From Governance Norms to Enforceable Controls: A Layered Translation Method for Runtime Guardrails in Agentic AI
topic Artificial Intelligence
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
Multiagent Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.05229