Concept Note · aiassurancecase.com

AI Assurance Case

Vendor-neutral concept note for an inspection-ready CAE artifact for high-risk AI

Informational only. Not a regulator. Not a certification body. Not legal, compliance, audit, or security advice. This concept note describes a neutral structure and language pattern for claims, arguments, and evidence that can withstand third-party review.

Definition

An AI Assurance Case is a structured bundle of claims, arguments, and evidence (CAE) that provides reasonable confidence that a high-risk AI system meets required properties in a given operational context, and that residual risks are explicitly understood and controlled.

Scope: inspection-ready documentation for procurement scrutiny, audit review, insurer underwriting, and high-stakes deployment oversight.

Minimal, reviewable CAE skeleton

  • Top claim: what property is being assured (and for which operational context).
  • Sub-claims: decomposed, reviewable assertions tied to controls and responsibilities.
  • Argument strategy: why the evidence supports the claims; how uncertainty is handled.
  • Evidence set: tests, evaluations, policies, monitoring, incident handling, security controls.
  • Residual risk statement: explicit limits, assumptions, unknowns, and remaining exposure.
  • Accountability: who asserted what, on which evidence, at which date and version.

Procurement-friendly evidence classes

  • Governance evidence: roles, policies, reviews, approvals, change management.
  • Evaluation evidence: test plans, benchmarks, red-team results, limitations.
  • Monitoring evidence: drift monitoring, incident handling, post-deployment review.
  • Security evidence: access control, logging, integrity controls, threat modeling.

The intent is not completeness. The intent is inspectability: evidence that a third party can verify.

Alignment layers (illustrative)

  • Assurance case structure: ISO/IEC/IEEE 15026-2 (terminology and structure).
  • Risk management: NIST AI RMF (Govern, Map, Measure, Manage).
  • Management system: ISO/IEC 42001 (AI management system governance).
  • High-risk documentation: EU AI Act technical documentation logic (Article 11, Annex IV).

What this is not

  • Not a certification, not a regulator program, not a standards body, not a vendor label.
  • Not a promise of compliance, assurance, safety, security, or performance.
  • Not an audit firm, not consulting, not legal advice, not a commercial tool or platform.
  • No third-party compliance claims. References are cited as public sources only.

Illustrative contract clauses (examples)

  • Supplier shall provide an AI assurance case structured as claims, arguments, and evidence.
  • The assurance case shall be inspection-ready and suitable for third-party review.
  • Evidence shall include governance, evaluation, monitoring, and security artifacts, with versioning and dates.
  • Residual risks and limitations shall be explicitly stated and approved by accountable owners.
  • Material changes to the model or deployment shall trigger an assurance case update and review.

These clauses are illustrative only and are not legal advice.

Primary curated sources

© aiassurancecase.com - concept note. Independent informational resource. No affiliation with any referenced entity. No legal, compliance, audit, security, financial, or investment advice. Contact: contact@aiassurancecase.com