I was laid off as part of a company-wide action, like so many others.
It made me ask a question I hadn’t had time for: what do I actually want to spend the next chapter building? For 20 years I’ve built governance around systems nobody fully trusted on their own: SOX ITGCs, PLM across global manufacturing, a business divestiture. Different systems, same job: make the black box trustworthy.
AI is the next black box. And I want to be part of the solution.
Since the layoff, AI has exploded, and I’ve watched it reshape the job market in real time. Job seekers and recruiters are both leaning on AI to move faster, often without really understanding what it’s doing, and it’s creating confusion, frustration, and disappointment on both sides. That’s true for AI across the board.
ERP and PLM didn’t get governed because someone found them interesting. They got governed because ungoverned systems eventually fail, expensively and publicly. AI is at that same point now.
That’s why ISO/IEC 42001 pulled me in. It’s a governance framework for AI systems: transparency, explainability, accountability. It’s the same job ITGCs do for financial systems. Governments are catching up too, with the EU AI Act and NIST’s AI RMF, and that means real demand for people who can actually build these systems, not just talk about it. I have the Senior Lead Implementer certificate and am working on the Senior Lead Auditor and Professional certificates.
For professionals looking to build practical expertise in this area, the ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Implementer course provides a structured path into AI governance and AI Management System implementation. It focuses on the practical work of building, managing, and improving an AI Management System.
AI isn’t new. It’s been here in some form for decades. I see how it can correct bias faster than we ever could by hand through good data governance. I see it helping doctors in medical diagnosis and accelerating treatment development for rare diseases. I see it giving independence back to aging and disabled populations through self-driving cars. I want to be part of building that future.
But none of it works without trust. We trust a car’s engine, even though it’s a black box to most of us, because governance exists around it. We trust our food supply for the same reason. Let’s trust AI to work for us, because good governance exists.
