AI approval acceleration for regulated industries.
CLEARANCE Advisory gives compliance, legal, and quality teams the frameworks to evaluate AI tools, build defensible evidence trails, and say yes — faster.
- Evaluate AI vendors with regulation-mapped questionnaires and scoring
- Build defensible evidence packs your auditors and regulators expect
- Approve AI tools in weeks, not quarters — with reusable frameworks
- Monitor deployed tools with supervision playbooks and change controls
The compliance gap
From our contributor compliance research
The bottleneck
Your teams want AI tools. Your compliance function doesn't have a playbook.
Compliance teams have frameworks for trading systems, data vendors, and cloud providers. They have nothing purpose-built for AI tools that ingest proprietary data, generate analysis, and may influence regulated decisions.
The approval stalls. A portfolio manager, clinical scientist, or operations lead finds an AI tool that could transform their workflow. They pitch it internally. IT runs a technical evaluation. Procurement sends a vendor risk questionnaire. Standard process.
Then it reaches compliance. And it stops. Because the questions are genuinely new: How was this model trained? What data governance practices does the vendor follow? If the output influences a regulated decision, who supervises it? What evidence trail do we need?
The compliance team has no template, no precedent, no peer benchmark. So the rational answer is "wait."
The cost of waiting. Every month an AI tool sits in compliance review is a month of lost productivity, a month competitors gain advantage, and a month employees find workarounds — shadow AI usage that creates the exact risk compliance was trying to prevent.
The problem is not that compliance teams are slow. The problem is that nobody has given them the tools to move fast. A standardised vendor questionnaire designed for AI. An evidence checklist mapped to their regulatory regime. Policy templates for AI-specific supervision. An accountability framework that connects AI decisions to the right people.
The bottleneck isn't "should we adopt AI?" It's that compliance, QA, and procurement don't have a standardised way to say yes safely.
Core offering
The AI Approval Accelerator.
A fixed-scope engagement that delivers a reusable approval framework — applied to your priority AI tools first, then owned permanently by your team for every future evaluation.
What you get
Evidence Pack & Approval Workflow
A complete, reusable set of artifacts your compliance function uses to evaluate, approve, and monitor AI tools — starting with your highest-priority tools.
- ✓ AI vendor evaluation questionnaire — regulation-mapped
- ✓ Evidence checklist and required artifacts specification
- ✓ Credibility assessment — FDA-aligned or regulatory-aligned
- ✓ Approval workflow with sign-off authority mapping
- ✓ Monitoring playbook and change-control triggers
- ✓ Internal policy templates — acceptable use, supervision, incident response
- ✓ Contract clause addendum template for AI vendors
How it works
Accelerator Sprint
We work with your compliance, legal, QA, and business stakeholders in a structured sprint — ending with artifacts your organisation owns permanently.
- ✓ Stakeholder alignment across compliance, legal, IT, and business
- ✓ Use-case classification and risk-level assessment
- ✓ Vendor documentation review and gap analysis
- ✓ Regulatory alignment mapping to your jurisdiction
- ✓ Human oversight and supervision workflow design
- ✓ Evidence room setup — structured repository your team owns
- ✓ Committee-ready presentation of findings and recommendation
Sprint methodology
Four phases. One reusable framework.
Every sprint ends with permanent artifacts and reusable templates. Each subsequent evaluation is faster than the last.
01
Inventory & Classification
Map AI tools in use and under evaluation. Identify which touch regulated workflows. Classify risk level and required evidence depth.
02
Vendor Due Diligence
Deploy standardised AI vendor questionnaire. Collect and review vendor documentation — data governance, model methodology, training practices, security.
03
Credibility & Controls
Build context-of-use definition and credibility evidence plan. Design human oversight workflows. Define monitoring triggers and change-control procedures.
04
Evidence Room & Handover
Deliver structured evidence repository. Final approval workflow and scoring rubric. Committee-ready recommendation. Reusable templates for all future evaluations.
Advisory services
Modular services. Engage on what you need.
Start with the Accelerator Sprint. Expand into policy development, ongoing intelligence, or additional tool evaluations as your AI adoption scales.
AI Approval Accelerator Sprint
The core engagement. Approve 1–2 priority AI tools with a defensible evidence pack and a reusable framework for all future evaluations.
- ✓ Full evidence pack and approval workflow
- ✓ Vendor evaluation questionnaire — regulation-mapped
- ✓ Credibility assessment and controls design
- ✓ Evidence room setup and handover
- ✓ Committee-ready recommendation
4–6 weeks · Fixed fee · Single PO
AI Governance Policy Suite
The internal policies your organisation is missing. AI acceptable use, vendor approval workflow, supervision requirements, employee guidelines, incident response.
- ✓ AI acceptable use policy
- ✓ AI vendor approval and review workflow
- ✓ Output supervision and quality requirements
- ✓ Employee AI activity guidelines
- ✓ Incident response and escalation procedures
3–5 weeks · Integrates with existing compliance manual
Regulatory Alignment Assessment
Map current and planned AI deployments against applicable regulations. Traffic-light gap analysis with specific remediation steps. Jurisdiction-specific.
- ✓ AI deployment inventory and classification
- ✓ Regulation-by-regulation gap analysis
- ✓ Remediation roadmap with priorities
- ✓ Accountability mapping — SM&CR, senior management
- ✓ Audit-readiness assessment
2–4 weeks · Standalone or Sprint add-on
Ongoing Intelligence & Support
Quarterly regulatory briefings, template updates as regulations evolve, and ad-hoc advisory on new AI tools under evaluation. Keeps your framework current.
- ✓ Quarterly regulatory intelligence briefing
- ✓ Template and questionnaire updates
- ✓ Ad-hoc advisory on new tool evaluations
- ✓ Vendor response benchmarking
- ✓ Annual framework review and refresh
Annual retainer · Quarterly cadence
Industries
Built for regulated industries where the default answer is no.
The approval bottleneck is universal. The regulatory context is specific. Every engagement is tailored to your industry's requirements, terminology, and governance culture.
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Pharma & Life Sciences
AI tools for drug discovery, clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, medical writing, and regulatory submissions. GxP-quality evidence trails, FDA credibility frameworks, ALCOA-aligned documentation.
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Financial Services
AI tools for investment research, portfolio analysis, earnings summarisation, compliance monitoring, and client communications. OBA frameworks, contributor compliance, supervisory accountability.
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Insurance & Risk
AI tools for claims processing, underwriting, fraud detection, and actuarial analysis. Model risk management, fair-lending compliance, regulatory reporting requirements.
Regulatory landscape
Multiple frameworks are converging on AI governance. The direction is unambiguous.
Every evidence pack maps directly to the requirements your auditors and regulators will ask about.
| Framework | Status | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| EU AI Act | Enforcing 2025–26 | High-risk AI systems require documented data governance including data origin. GPAI providers must publish training-content summaries. Your vendors will be required to provide these artifacts. |
| FDA AI/ML Guidance | Draft Jan 2025 | Risk-based credibility assessment for AI supporting regulatory decisions. Requires documented data provenance, model training methodology, and evaluation process. |
| DORA (EU) | Live Jan 2025 | Critical ICT vendor contracts require minimum terms on data handling, audit rights, and subprocessor transparency. AI vendors increasingly fall within scope. |
| FCA SM&CR | Active | Senior managers personally accountable for AI deployment decisions and oversight failures. Requires clear accountability mapping for AI vendor approval. |
| FINRA Rule 3290 | Comment closed | Expands outside business activity reporting to include AI platform work. Affects 635,000+ registered persons. Firms need updated OBA policies. |
| GxP / ALCOA | Active | Pharma quality expectations demand attributable, legible, contemporaneous, original, and accurate evidence trails for AI outputs used in regulated processes. |
One sprint. A framework you use forever.
Every engagement leaves your organisation with permanent, reusable assets — not a dependency on ongoing consulting.
Start a Conversation →Why CLEARANCE
Operational AI platform expertise. Not theoretical governance.
We've worked inside AI platforms. We know how models are actually trained, how contributors actually work, and what vendor documentation actually reveals.
01
Inside-out perspective
We've operated inside AI platforms, documented contributor compliance practices, and seen vendor operations firsthand. Our due diligence frameworks catch real risks — not theoretical ones.
02
Speed through repeatability
Every engagement builds our benchmark library. After 10 evaluations we know what good vendor responses look like, what red flags signal, and what regulators actually focus on.
03
Artifacts, not decks
We deliver working documents — questionnaires, checklists, policy templates, workflow designs — that your team uses operationally. Not a strategy presentation.
04
Permanent ownership
Everything we deliver, you own. No platform lock-in, no recurring licence fees, no dependency. Integrates with whatever GRC or compliance systems you already use.
05
Vendor-neutral
We don't sell software. We don't take commissions from AI vendors. Our incentive is aligned with yours: approve the right tools safely, reject the wrong ones clearly.
06
Cross-jurisdiction fluency
Frameworks map to EU AI Act, FDA, DORA, SM&CR, FINRA, and GxP requirements simultaneously. One engagement covers your regulatory surface.
For AI vendors
We don't slow your sales cycle. We compress it.
When your prospects have a clear evaluation framework, decisions that took 12 months take 6 weeks. We give compliance teams the playbook to say yes — faster.
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Faster deployment
Structured evaluation compresses compliance review from quarters to weeks. Your prospects close faster.
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Differentiation
Compliance readiness is a competitive advantage. Vendors with documented practices close deals competitors cannot.
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Standardisation
One evaluation framework means you prepare one compliance package — not bespoke responses for every prospect.
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Pre-qualification
We work with vendors to prepare documentation proactively — ready before the prospect's compliance team asks.
Start with a conversation.
Not a contract.
Tell us what prompted your interest — an AI tool stuck in review, a policy gap, regulatory preparation, or a board question you need to answer.
We'll respond within 48 hours with a scoped proposal your team can review internally. No sales calls. No demos. A document.
Industries served
Regulatory coverage
CLEARANCE Advisory provides compliance frameworks and documentation. It does not provide legal advice, determine compliance status, or offer indemnification. Submissions handled per our privacy policy.
Enquiry received.
We'll respond within 48 hours with a scoped proposal tailored to your situation.