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# Understanding Responsibilities in Al Practices
- URL: https://www.aigl.blog/understanding-responsibilities-in-al-practices/
- Published: 2025-04-21T16:16:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-12T20:05:29.000Z
- Description: This guidance from New South Wales outlines role-specific responsibilities for implementing responsible AI. It supports public agencies in assigning accountability using ISO-aligned frameworks and practical RACI structures. A useful anchor for everyday governance.
- Author: Jakub Szarmach
- Tags: Guide, #aigl-library, AI Governance, Responsible AI, Public Sector & National Security, Human Agency, Compliance & Audit

[Understanding Responsibilities in AI PracticesUnderstanding Responsibilities in AI Practices.pdf155 KBdownload-circle](https://www.aigl.blog/content/files/2025/04/Understanding-Responsibilities-in-AI-Practices.pdf "Download")

## **📘 What’s Covered** 

This document is part of the broader **NSW AI Assessment Framework** and focuses on one of the thorniest parts of responsible AI: **who is actually responsible for what**.

Rather than prescribing rules, it outlines a **flexible accountability structure**, built around five role types:

- **Executives**: Set strategic direction, sign off on initiatives, and hold ultimate accountability.
- **Managers**: Operationalise governance and ensure compliance with ethical, security, and policy requirements.
- **Product Owners**: Bridge the business and technical layers, embedding AI risks and controls into the delivery pipeline.
- **Users**: Follow system guidance, flag performance issues, and report anomalies or harms.
- **Everyone**: Maintain a shared culture of ethical AI use and participate in training and feedback loops.

The responsibilities are not framed as legal obligations but as **practical behavioural expectations**, grounded in ISO/IEC standards. They are also mapped to **RACI matrices** — which are particularly useful for larger agencies dealing with overlapping roles or shifting structures.

Agencies are encouraged to:

- Integrate these responsibilities into **performance plans**;
- Incorporate them into **training and awareness programs**;
- Use them as scaffolding when **designing or auditing AI governance structures**.

The guidance fits squarely into a broader culture-change agenda: governance is not just compliance — it’s practice. This emphasis on **embedding responsible AI through teams, structures, and behaviours** is what sets it apart from more compliance-heavy checklists.

## **💡 Why it matters?**

This guide does something many AI governance documents skip: it assigns roles across the full org chart — not just tech and legal. It reinforces that responsible AI isn’t the job of the ethics team or CDO alone. And it gives public sector teams a flexible, standards-based way to structure accountability before something goes wrong. Clear enough for frontline teams, mature enough for audit trails.

## **🔍 What’s Missing**

While the role definitions are solid, the guidance stops short of **providing specific examples** — e.g., what does good look like in a use-of-force AI model versus a recruitment one? There’s also little advice on handling **conflicts or trade-offs** between departments. Additionally, performance measures are mentioned but not exemplified — a missed opportunity for benchmarking.

## **🎯 Best For**

Designed for **public sector AI leaders, digital ethics teams, and heads of service delivery**. Also useful for HR, risk, and procurement officers embedding AI roles into governance frameworks. The tone and structure are especially suited to governments adopting ISO-aligned AI policies.

## **📚 Source Details**

- **Title**: *AI Assessment Framework Guidance – Understanding Responsibilities in AI Practices*
- **Published by**: NSW Department of Customer Service
- **Date**: December 2024
- **Standards alignment**: ISO/IEC AI governance standards
- **Use case**: Role assignment, performance planning, training
- **Document type**: Official state government guidance