taxonomy
What It Means
Taxonomy is a structured way of organizing and categorizing things into groups based on their natural relationships and characteristics. In AI and business contexts, it's like creating a family tree or filing system that shows how different concepts, data types, or technologies relate to each other in a logical hierarchy.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Taxonomies are critical for AI governance because they help standardize how your organization classifies AI systems, data types, risk levels, and compliance requirements. Without clear taxonomies, you can't consistently assess AI risks, apply appropriate controls, or ensure different teams are talking about the same things when evaluating AI projects.
Real-World Example
A healthcare AI company might create a taxonomy that categorizes their AI applications into diagnostic tools (subdivided by medical specialty), treatment recommendation systems (categorized by condition type), and administrative AI (sorted by function like scheduling or billing). This helps them apply the right regulatory standards, security measures, and approval processes to each category.
Common Confusion
People often confuse taxonomy with simple categorization or tagging, but taxonomy specifically implies a hierarchical structure with natural relationships between categories. It's not just putting labels on things - it's organizing them in a way that reflects how they actually relate to each other.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare, taxonomy provides standardized classification systems for medical concepts, enabling interoperability and...
Finance: In finance, taxonomy refers to standardized classification systems for financial data, instruments, and activities that ...
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Includes:
- 6 industry-specific applications
- Relevant regulations by sector
- Real compliance scenarios
- Implementation guidance
Technical Definitions
NISTNational Institute of Standards and Technology
"Taxonomy refers to classification according to presumed natural relationships among types and their subtypes."Source: OECD
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