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Yes AI - AI Solutions Australia
For chief risk officers and audit committees

AI Risk Assessment for Australian Mid-Market Businesses

Your audit committee, insurer, or customer just asked: what is your AI risk register? Most Australian mid-market businesses do not have one. We deliver a productized AI risk assessment: 15 to 25 catalogued risks specific to your business, with likelihood, impact, mitigation, and owner. Audit-ready in 14 days.

Used by Australian mid-market businesses, audit committees, chief risk officers, and regulated industry leaders to answer the AI risk register question with substance, not hand-waving.

Book an AI Risk Briefing (03) 9003 0111

Realistic ROI

14 days
Risk register in hand
Versus 3 to 6 months for the typical internal effort
15 to 25 risks
Catalogued, scored, and owned
Tailored to your sector and current AI usage
$8K to $15K
Productized engagement
Versus $60K to $200K Big 4 risk advisory
ISO 42001 + NIST AI RMF
Framework alignment
Audit-ready, customer-questionnaire-ready

Why an AI Risk Register Now Matters

AI risks are real, specific, and often invisible until they manifest. Four shifts in 2025 to 2026 made the risk register a board-level artifact.

Shadow AI is creating invisible risks

In a typical 50-person AU business, 60 to 80 percent of staff use ChatGPT or Claude weekly. Sensitive data, customer information, and IP routinely flow into consumer tier tools. Without a risk register, these risks are invisible to leadership.

Audit and insurance ask specifically about AI risks

External audit firms now ask: "show me the AI risk register". Cyber insurance renewals ask: "what AI controls are in place?". Without a register, the answer is hand-waving. With one, the answer is a structured document.

Regulators are watching specific risk areas

OAIC on data leakage, AHPRA on clinical decision support, ASIC on automated advice, APRA on operational resilience. Each has highlighted specific AI risk categories. Your register should address the categories that apply to your regulatory exposure.

Customers procure on AI risk posture

Enterprise customers (Big 4 banks, government, large mutuals) embed AI risk questions in procurement questionnaires. Without documented risk posture, contracts pause for 30 to 90 days while the vendor catches up.

The 6 AI Risk Categories We Catalogue

Every AU business has risk in each of these categories. The specifics differ; the categories do not.

3 to 5 risks per category

Data leakage and confidentiality

Sensitive data entering consumer AI tools. Customer PII in training data. Confidential strategy in shared chat history.

2 to 4 risks per category

IP and copyright

AI-generated content with disputed IP. Training data scraping liability. Copyright in customer deliverables.

3 to 5 risks per category

Hallucination and factual error

Customer-facing content with hallucinated facts. Compliance documents with incorrect citations. Financial figures fabricated.

2 to 4 risks per category

Bias and discrimination

Automated hiring screens. Customer eligibility decisions. Pricing or product recommendations. Each a potential discrimination exposure.

2 to 5 risks per category

Regulatory and legal breach

APP breach via cross-border AI processing. Sector-specific regulatory breach. Spam Act compliance for AI-generated outreach.

3 to 5 risks per category

Operational and vendor

AI vendor outage. Pricing model changes. Model deprecation. Security breach at AI provider. Concentration risk.

Six AU AI Risk Assessment Scenarios

TaskTraditionalWith Yes AINotes
AU SaaS preparing for SOC 2 Type II auditAI risks scattered across notesStructured risk register aligned with SOC 2 controlsAuditor accepts the register as evidence of risk management. Audit time on AI questions drops 60 percent.
AU mid-market business renewing cyber insuranceAI questions answered with "we are working on it"Documented register with mitigations and ownersPremium does not get loaded for AI uncertainty. Underwriter accepts the documented posture as adequate.
AU SaaS responding to enterprise customer questionnaireStuck on AI section for 30 to 90 daysPre-built risk responses for AI sectionAI questionnaire answered in 2 days, not 90. Contract closes on time.
AU healthcare business with clinical AI exposureGeneric risk template misses clinical risksSector-tuned register addressing clinical decision supportAHPRA-aligned risk treatment. Clinical advisory board comfortable with the documented posture.
AU mining business with operational AI toolingRisk register stale, AI usage explodedCurrent register reflecting actual AI usageRisk committee has accurate picture. Operational leaders own specific risks; mitigations tracked.
AU board asking CEO for AI risk briefingSlides without specificsBoard paper grounded in real risk register with specific mitigationsBoard confidence in CEO's AI risk posture lifts. Audit committee chair comfortable.

Six Disciplines for AU AI Risk Programs

Specific risks, not generic categories

A risk register saying "data leakage" is not useful. A risk register saying "staff pasting customer PII into ChatGPT free tier" with specific mitigation is useful. We force specificity in every register entry.

Owned by named humans, not "the team"

Every risk gets a named owner with seniority appropriate to the risk. CRO owns regulatory breach. CTO owns vendor outage. Head of People owns shadow AI. Generic ownership = no ownership.

Refresh quarterly with named accountability

Risk register frozen for 12 months reflects 12 month old reality. We embed a quarterly review cadence with named owners. Each owner attests their risks are current.

Tie mitigations to operational controls

A risk register that does not change behaviour is theatre. We tie every mitigation to a specific operational control: an SLA, an approval workflow, a tooling configuration, a training module.

Aligned with frameworks that matter to your stakeholders

NIST AI RMF for US enterprise customers. ISO 42001 for global enterprise customers. AU VAISS for AU regulators. EU AI Act for EU customers. We align with the right framework for your stakeholders, not generic best practice.

Reviewed by the right committee

For mid-market AU businesses, the right reviewer is typically the audit and risk committee. For SaaS pre-IPO, it is the audit committee or board. For listed companies, it is the risk committee or full board. We help you stage the right governance route.

How Yes AI Builds Your Risk Register

Discovery and AI usage audit

Half-day session: who uses AI, which tools, on what data, with what controls. Output is the current state of AI risk in your business.

Sector and regulatory tuning

We tune the register to your sector: healthcare, financial services, education, government, manufacturing. AU-specific regulatory exposure mapped per risk.

Risk register drafting and review

Draft 15 to 25 specific risks with likelihood, impact, mitigation, owner. Leadership review. Final approved register ready for audit committee.

Quarterly refresh cadence

Optional quarterly refresh service. Named owners attest current state. New risks added; resolved risks closed. Register stays alive, not stale.

Our 14-Day Risk Assessment

Most AU mid-market clients have a board-ready risk register inside 14 to 21 days.

Days 1 to 3: Discovery workshop

Half-day workshop. Map current AI usage across functions. Capture sector context and regulatory exposure.

Days 4 to 7: Risk drafting

Draft 15 to 25 specific risks per the 6 categories. Likelihood, impact, mitigation, owner per risk.

Days 7 to 10: Owner consultation and refinement

Brief each named owner. Refine mitigations to operational controls. Lock owner accountability.

Days 10 to 14: Final review and committee staging

Final review with CRO or CEO. Stage for the audit and risk committee. Optional: present to committee.

Day 30+: Quarterly refresh begins

Optional ongoing refresh. Each quarter, named owners attest. New risks added; closed risks retired.

Related Reading

AI Governance Policy

The policy layer on top of the register.

Claude for CROs

How CROs use Claude operationally.

AI Vendor Questionnaires

Answer customer AI questionnaires faster.

FAQ

Is an AI risk register actually required?

For some, formally required (regulated sectors). For most AU mid-market, practically required by audit firms, cyber insurers, and enterprise customers. The cost of not having one is real (audit findings, premium loadings, lost contracts) even if there is no specific legal mandate.

How is this different from our existing enterprise risk register?

Most ERMs do not address AI-specific risks adequately. We add an AI risk register as a subset of your existing ERM, or as a standalone register that feeds into the ERM. The 6 AI risk categories (data leakage, IP, hallucination, bias, regulatory, operational) are AI-specific.

Do you map to NIST AI RMF or ISO 42001?

Both, depending on your stakeholders. For US enterprise customers, NIST AI RMF is the standard reference. For ISO 27001-certified businesses, ISO 42001 is the natural extension. We map the register to the framework that matters to your audit and customer questionnaires.

Can we add this on top of an existing ISO 27001 program?

Yes, this is a common pattern. Many AU SaaS businesses with ISO 27001 add the AI risk register as a control area inside the existing ISMS. Lower effort, audit-friendly. We help structure this layer onto your existing program.

What does this cost?

Productized: $8,000 BASIC (discovery + register + handoff). $15,000 STRATEGIC (BASIC + sector tuning + audit committee staging + 12-month quarterly refresh). For comparison, Big 4 AI risk engagements run $60K to $200K.

Can you tune for our regulated sector?

Yes. We have built registers for AU healthcare (AHPRA / TGA exposure), financial services (APRA / ASIC), education (TEQSA / ASQA), government (Information Security Manual), and energy (AER). Sector-specific risks and mitigations baked in.

How often should we update the register?

Quarterly minimum. AI capability and regulation move fast enough that an annual register is materially out of date within 6 months. We offer a quarterly refresh service for $1,500 per quarter to keep the register current and audit-ready year-round.

Can you present to our audit committee or board?

Yes. We attend the audit committee or risk committee meeting on request, present the risk register, answer committee questions, and capture any directed amendments for follow-up.

Book an AI Risk Briefing

60 minute briefing with CRO, CEO, or audit committee chair. We walk through the productized engagement, sample registers from your sector, and the audit-committee path.

Book a Briefing (03) 9003 0111

All discussions held in confidence. Australian-based consultants.