05 Decide · AI Production Readiness Assurance
An independent opinion before go-live.
A structured pre-deployment assessment across risk, security, safety, governance and evidence. It concludes with a readiness position: ready, ready subject to conditions, or not ready. The decision to deploy remains with the organisation.
The decision chain
- 01Builder, internal team or vendor completes the system
- 02Alacrix assesses it against the assurance criteria
- 03Controls are tested and residual risk is stated
- 04A readiness conclusion is issued with conditions
- 05The organisation decides whether to deploy
Who this is for
Organisations at the point of trusting an AI system with real work.
- Executives asked to approve deployment of a material AI system
- Risk committees requiring independent input before sign-off
- Organisations deploying supplier-built AI into regulated workflows
- Teams moving a pilot into production with real clients or data
- Boards that want the residual exposure stated before, not after
Outcomes
What changes for the organisation
A clear readiness conclusion
Ready, ready subject to conditions, or not ready, with the reasoning and evidence set out.
Conditions that can be met
Where readiness is conditional, the specific conditions, owners and verification required.
Residual exposure on record
A written statement of what remains, so acceptance is an informed and accountable decision.
What Alacrix does
We assess the finished system against the criteria it was meant to meet.
Readiness is not a maturity score. It is a judgement about whether the reliance the organisation intends to place on this system is currently reasonable.
- Confirm intended use, reliance and consequence at deployment scale
- Test the material risk, security and safety controls in place
- Verify remediation from earlier reviews has been implemented and holds
- Assess governance, approval authority and incident readiness for this system
- Assess whether operation can be evidenced and reconstructed
- Issue the readiness conclusion, conditions and residual risk statement
Readiness domains
What the conclusion rests on
Six domains assessed together before deployment.
Risk
Whether material risk has been identified, assessed against real reliance and reduced to a stated acceptable level.
Security
Whether identity, permission, data exposure and containment controls have been tested and hold.
Safety
Whether failure modes, autonomy limits, oversight and rollback are defined and effective.
Governance
Whether ownership, approval authority, change control and incident routes operate for this system.
Evidence
Whether operation, decisions and interventions can be reconstructed from what the system retains.
Residual exposure
What remains after controls, who accepts it, and under what conditions that acceptance stands.
Deliverables
What you leave with
Independent, not self-assured
An opinion, not an approval.
Alacrix provides an independent readiness opinion based on the evidence reviewed at a point in time. It is not certification, accreditation, regulatory approval or legal advice.
- We do not build, operate or deploy the system
- The deployment decision stays with the accountable organisation
- The opinion states its scope, evidence base and limitations
- Conditions are written so they can be verified rather than interpreted
Engagement process
How the work runs
- 01
Assess
Test controls, verify remediation and examine governance and evidence for this system.
- 02
Conclude
Issue the readiness position, conditions and residual risk statement.
- 03
Support the decision
Brief the accountable owners so approval, conditioning or deferral is informed.
Next step
Decide with evidence, not optimism.
An independent readiness assessment sets out what has been tested, what remains exposed and whether the system is ready to be trusted with real work.