Leader Comms With AI · Module 0

The Leadership AI Governance Toolkit

A governance position you can defend to your CEO, your board, or a journalist. Seven short artefacts built around four controls, each usable in under thirty minutes.

Disclosure
Accountability
Risk and IP
Capability

Built by Michael MacLennan, twenty years in communications. Free.

Get the full toolkit

All seven artefacts, with checklists you can tick and a board one-pager you can fill in, plus the PDF. Or start the readiness check below first.

Start here

The gap, the four controls, the fortnight

Most communications teams adopted AI faster than they governed it. Drafting, research, summarising, monitoring: it is already in the workflow. What is usually missing is the part a leader is accountable for. When do we disclose it, who signs it off, what must never go into a tool, and who answers if it goes wrong.

Disclosure

when you tell people AI was involved
Accountability

who signs off, and who answers
Risk and IP

what never goes in, and who owns what comes out
Capability

whether your team can use it well

Researchers tracking AI in PR since 2017 keep finding the same thing: teams believe AI policies have been asked for far more often than anyone reports putting them in place. Around half of in-house teams never ask their agencies about AI use at all, and agencies report the mirror image. The profession is using AI widely and governing it barely.

From the Comms With AI leader interview with Ben Verinder, May 2026.

Seven artefacts, four controls

Each artefact takes under thirty minutes. Worked through over a fortnight, they move you from “we’ll look into it” to “we have this in hand”.

1 Where you stand All four controls Day 1
2 The disclosure decision guide Full toolkit Disclosure Days 2–3
3 The approval and accountability map Full toolkit Accountability Days 4–5
4 The claims and accuracy check Full toolkit Accountability Days 6–7
5 Confidentiality red lines, and the IP note Full toolkit Risk and IP Days 8–9
6 The board-ready one-pager Full toolkit All four controls Days 10–12
7 The 30-day adoption path Full toolkit Capability Days 13–14

What this is not

This toolkit supports good governance and responsible adoption. It is not legal advice, and it does not claim to make you compliant with any specific regulation. What it gives you is the structure to get there with your own advisers. The bar is higher for regulated and public-sector teams, and this toolkit says so where it matters.

The other six artefacts

Found your priority? The rest of the toolkit is the fix.

2 The disclosure decision guide · about 25 minutes
3 The approval and accountability map · about 30 minutes
4 The claims and accuracy check · about 15 minutes
5 Confidentiality red lines, and the IP note · about 20 minutes
6 The board-ready one-pager · about 30 minutes
7 The 30-day adoption path · about 20 minutes