traceability
What It Means
Traceability means being able to track and document every step in your AI system's lifecycle - from the data sources used to train it, through the development decisions made, to how it operates in production. It's like having a complete audit trail that shows exactly how your AI system was built and why it makes the decisions it does.
Why Chief AI Officers Care
Regulators increasingly require companies to explain how their AI systems work, especially in high-stakes industries like healthcare, finance, and hiring. Without traceability, you can't respond to audits, debug problems when they occur, or prove your AI systems are fair and compliant. It's also essential for managing risk - if something goes wrong, you need to quickly identify the root cause.
Real-World Example
A bank's AI loan approval system denies a mortgage application, and the applicant files a discrimination complaint. With proper traceability, the bank can show regulators exactly which data sources were used, how the model was trained, what factors influenced the decision, and prove the denial was based on legitimate financial criteria rather than protected characteristics like race or gender.
Common Confusion
People often confuse traceability with explainability - traceability is about documenting the development process and data lineage, while explainability is about making individual AI decisions understandable. You can have a traceable system that still makes decisions that are hard to explain to end users.
Industry-Specific Applications
See how this term applies to healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government, tech, and insurance.
Healthcare: In healthcare AI, traceability is critical for meeting FDA requirements for medical device software and demonstrating co...
Finance: In finance, traceability is critical for demonstrating regulatory compliance and risk management, requiring complete doc...
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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
"Ability to trace the history, application or location of an entity by means of recorded identification. ["Chain of custody" is a related term.] Alternatively, traceability is a property of the result of a measurement or the value of a standard whereby it can be related with a stated uncertainty, to stated references, usually national or international standards, i.e. through an unbroken chain of comparisons. In this context, The standards referred to here are measurement standards rather than written standards."Source: UNODC_Glossary_QA_GLP
"A characteristic of an AI system enabling a person to understand the technology, development processes, and operational capabilities (e.g., with transparent and auditable methodologies along with documented data sources and design procedures)."Source: NSCAI
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