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Risk tier

By Updated

An organisation's own rating of an AI use case, computed at intake by a versioned policy from declared profile fields such as autonomy, decision impact, exposure, reversibility, vulnerable groups, data class and third parties. The tier selects the assessments, evals, thresholds, approvers and review cadence a system must pass; it sits beside the legal classification, not in place of it.

Developed in
ch. 13, Contributing factors and the use-case risk profile
ch. 05, Pattern: Use-Case Intake & Risk Tiering
Chapters
ch. 05, Patterns · ch. 06, The Role · ch. 12, Governance Program · ch. 13, Risk Management
Contrast with
High-risk AI system
Source
Defined by this Body of Knowledge: the section it is developed in is the source

Where it is used

8 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Risk tier: mentions per chapter21 mentions of the term across 8 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapterCross-referenced, not named04 The Stack: 2 mentions04 The Stack205 Patterns006 The Role: 3 mentions06 The Role310 Reading List: 1 mention10 Reading List111 AI Defined: 6 mentions11 AI Defined612 Governance Program: 1 mention12 Governance Program113 Risk Management: 1 mention13 Risk Management115 Deployment: 6 mentions15 Deployment622 Principles & Standards: 1 mention22 Principles & Standards1No mentions in the other 14 chaptersSource: the Body of Knowledgev0.5.0
Risk tier: mentions per chapter21 mentions of the term across 8 of the 23 chapters of the Body of Knowledge; the chapters the glossary cross-references are drawn solid.Cross-referenced chapterOther chapterCross-referenced, not named0001020304 The Stack: 2 mentions2040506 The Role: 3 mentions306070810 Reading List: 1 mention11011 AI Defined: 6 mentions61112 Governance Program: 1 mention11213 Risk Management: 1 mention1131415 Deployment: 6 mentions61516171819202122 Principles & Standards: 1 mention12223Source: the Body of Knowledge v0.5.0
Mentions per chapter How often each chapter names the term, with the chapters the glossary cross-references drawn solid. The longest bar is where to read the term in use; bars spread across many chapters mark a term that runs through the discipline.
Mentions as a table
Mentions of Risk tier per chapter
ChapterMentionsCross-referenced
00 Preface0No
01 Definition0No
02 Why Now0No
03 Values & Principles0No
04 The Stack2No
05 Patterns0Yes
06 The Role3Yes
07 Maturity Model0No
08 Regulatory Map0No
10 Reading List1No
11 AI Defined6No
12 Governance Program1Yes
13 Risk Management1Yes
14 Development0No
15 Deployment6No
16 Fairness & XAI0No
17 Incidents0No
18 EU AI Act0No
19 Privacy & AI0No
20 Existing Law0No
21 AI Laws Worldwide0No
22 Principles & Standards1No
23 AI Agents0No

Patterns that use this term

2 pattern pages use the term, most mentions first.

Risk tier: related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedContrastColour: stack layer of the pattern01 Govern-as-Code02 InventoryRisk tierRelated terms (6)Abstention band · RelatedAbstention bandAutonomy · RelatedAutonomyContributing factor · RelatedContributing factorDeployment Decision Record (DDR) · RelatedDeployment Decision RecordEvals · RelatedEvalsUse-case record · RelatedUse-case recordContrast with (1)High-risk AI system · ContrastHigh-risk AI systemPatterns using it (2)Use-Case Intake & Risk Tiering, 2 mentions · Uses the termUse-Case Intake & Risk TieringVendor / Model Due-Diligence Gate, 1 mention · Uses the termVendor / Model Due-Diligence
Risk tier: related terms and patternsThe term at the centre; related terms on solid edges, the terms it is contrasted with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer.RelatedContrastColour: stack layer of the pattern01 Govern-as-Code02 InventoryRelated terms (6)Abstention band · RelatedAbstention bandAutonomy · RelatedAutonomyContributing factor · RelatedContributing factorDeployment Decision Record (DDR) · RelatedDeployment Decision RecordEvals · RelatedEvalsUse-case record · RelatedUse-case recordContrast with (1)High-risk AI system · ContrastHigh-risk AI systemPatterns using it (2)Use-Case Intake & Risk Tiering, 2 mentions · Uses the termUse-Case Intake & Risk TieringVendor / Model Due-Diligence Gate, 1 mention · Uses the termVendor / Model Due-DiligenceRisk tier
The term's neighbourhood Terms related to this one on solid edges, terms it is often confused with on dashed edges, and the patterns that use it most in the colour of their layer. Follow a dashed edge to check the distinction before you use either term.
Neighbourhood as a table
Neighbourhood of Risk tier
FamilyItemRelation
Related termsAbstention bandRelated
Related termsAutonomyRelated
Related termsContributing factorRelated
Related termsDeployment Decision Record (DDR)Related
Related termsEvalsRelated
Related termsUse-case recordRelated
Contrast withHigh-risk AI systemContrast
Patterns using itUse-Case Intake & Risk Tiering, 2 mentionsUses the term
Patterns using itVendor / Model Due-Diligence Gate, 1 mentionUses the term
  • Contributing factor

    A property of a system or its context (autonomy, exposure, reversibility, vulnerable groups, data sensitivity, opacity) that moves the likelihood or severity…

  • Use-case record

    The intake record for a proposed AI use: business context, intended purpose and the uses ruled out, affected persons, decision authority, success metrics and…

  • Deployment Decision Record (DDR)

    The artefact that records the decision to deploy an AI system: objective, the people it acts on, negative space, risk tier and obligations, per-group…

  • Abstention band

    A range of scores in which a system does not act on its own but routes the case to a human reviewer.

  • Autonomy

    In the EU AI Act and OECD texts, some degree of independence of action from human involvement, which almost every AI system has.

  • Evals

    Automated tests of a model's or agent's behaviour (capability, safety and adversarial), run as controls, not as one-off research.

Sources

No external source: the term is coined or used in a specific sense by this Body of Knowledge, and the section linked under "Developed in" is its source.

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Risk tier. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/risk-tier. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026risktier,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Risk tier}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/risk-tier}
}