Episode Details

AI governance ensures that AI implementations are effective, safe, and responsible. i-GENTIC AI CEO Zahra Timsah says agentic AI makes it easier to enforce guardrails for safe and responsible AI.

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Podcast transcript:

Zahra Timsah: We have crossed a threshold where AI is no longer experimental at this point, right? It’s kind of like an infrastructure. AI models are embedded in credit scoring, healthcare diagnostics, legal reviews. Even if you look at national defense, you have AI. They’re no longer tools. They’re decision makers in digital form. This is how you can think about that. When you reach that scale, governance is not optional anymore. It’s kind of existential, so to speak.

Jason Lopez: Zahra Timsah, co-founder and CEO of iGentic AI, asserts that the deployment of AI in an organization requires a real-time governance layer to help see what an AI system is doing. This is the Tech Barometer podcast. I’m Jason Lopez. What you’re about to hear from her is a part of our Thought Leader series on AI. And while there’s the debate about AI in the news headlines, at the forecast, we’re going deeper, talking to technologists who are filling us in on what they’re seeing in the industry and what they’re working on in artificial intelligence.

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Zahra Timsah: Ungoverned AI, and this is from experience, can create harm, like real harm. You’re talking about biased hiring systems, misinformation loops, intellectual property violations, and even opaque decision paths for decision makers. They are operating in a world where every single AI decision, whether you’re talking about a model output, a data merge, automated recommendation, whatever, is getting two things, opportunity and liability.

Jason Lopez: She says organizations have to ensure their AI systems are transparent, accountable, and ethical. And that’s why emerging regulations are rapidly shifting the conversation from optional best practices to enforceable requirements for explainability, fairness, and traceability.

Zahra Timsah: If you look at regulations that are accelerating, like look at the EU AI Act, look at the US AI executive order, look at the GCC frameworks, AI governance has really evolved. It’s no longer just a compliance checkbox. It’s kind of a trust infrastructure. We’re seeing companies kind of form AI governance councils, I think is a very good idea. And they’re including in it CEOs, CIOs, general councils, and tech leadership.

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Jason Lopez: Timsah says without coordination, organizations risk managing AI through fragmented tools and disconnected processes, which will struggle to keep pace with change. Bringing stakeholders together is a great step.

Zahra Timsah: You’re talking about folks that specialize in GRC, governance, risk, and compliance. You’re talking about legal departments, even technical experts as well. Because not only do you have people, you also have platforms. You know what they say. It’s people, process, and platform. All of these are like siloed tools to manage the GRC.

Jason Lopez: This is where, she says, agentic AI can deliver. And just to highlight that agentic AI isn’t so much about AI agents. Agentic AI is the operating model that sets direction, plans the work,