MANAGE (NIST AI RMF)
The NIST AI RMF function focused on allocating resources, prioritizing actions, and responding to AI risks based on insights from the Map and Measure functions. MANAGE activities include risk prioritization, mitigation implementation, incident response, continuous monitoring, and decommissioning decisions.
Why It Matters
MANAGE is where governance becomes operational. Identifying and measuring risks is necessary but insufficient — organizations need concrete plans for which risks to accept, mitigate, transfer, or eliminate.
Example
After MEASURE reveals a 15% accuracy gap between demographic groups in a hiring model, the MANAGE function drives the response: the team prioritizes a retraining effort, implements interim human review for affected groups, and sets a 60-day deadline for resolution with executive escalation.
Think of it like...
MANAGE is like a triage nurse in an emergency room — after diagnosis and test results, MANAGE decides what needs immediate intervention, what can wait, and what requires escalation to a specialist.
Related Terms
NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF)
A voluntary framework published by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology that provides structured guidance for managing AI risks through four core functions: Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage. It's designed to be flexible, sector-agnostic, and compatible with other risk management frameworks.
GOVERN (NIST AI RMF)
The cross-cutting function of the NIST AI RMF focused on establishing and maintaining the organizational policies, processes, procedures, and practices needed for AI risk management. Unlike Map, Measure, and Manage — which apply to individual AI systems — GOVERN applies across the entire organization.
MAP (NIST AI RMF)
The NIST AI RMF function focused on establishing context, identifying risks, and understanding an AI system's purpose, stakeholders, and potential impacts. MAP activities include defining the use case, identifying affected populations, assessing benefits and costs, and cataloguing risks before development begins.
MEASURE (NIST AI RMF)
The NIST AI RMF function focused on quantifying, assessing, and tracking identified AI risks using metrics, tests, and evaluation methods. MEASURE activities include bias testing, performance benchmarking, explainability assessment, and security evaluation across the AI lifecycle.