Poorly governed AI leads to privacy violations, biased outcomes, leaks of secrets and intellectual property, and weak explainability. It can also be abused by users or attackers. These problems cause complaints, takedowns, fines, and lost deals. Add guardrails, testing, and logs so you can show your work.

Invest when growth or risk makes it necessary. Triggers: moving upmarket to enterprise, handling regulated data (personal, health, payments), scaling outbound marketing, or preparing for diligence (SOC 2/ISO). Pick a lightweight baseline, automate evidence early, and build only what buyers and risk demand.