Need some guidance?
GOVERNBOX is designed so organizations can manage AI governance themselves. But some teams want expert help getting started. Our Advisory Services give you access to an expert who works alongside your team — for organizations that don’t yet have someone responsible for overseeing AI use and governance, need outside expertise to help leadership or the board understand AI risks, responsibilities, and next steps, or need to get an AI governance program up and running quickly. You’ll work directly with the experts who built the governance framework behind GOVERNBOX.
Three pillars. Each one stands on its own.
Advisory is the last pillar, and it is available to all that require it. Here are all the pillars, in the order we recommend.
Readiness Scorecard
$0 · 5 minutes · no signupFifteen questions per domain. Tells you where you stand across AI, risk, technology, data and privacy — and whether you have a problem worth spending money on.
The Platform
$3,500/yr → $25,000/yr5 modules, cited policies, board reporting. You run it. Most organizations need nothing beyond this, and we’d rather you start here. Free for 15 days, no credit card required.
Start hereAdvisory
$1,500 → $20,000 · retainers from $2,500/moWe guide your team through the process so your people can manage the program themselves going forward. Together, we identify how AI is being used, document responsibilities and risks, establish policies, and prepare information for leadership and the board.
Each pillar stands on its own — nothing here is a funnel trick.
Expert help when your organization needs to move quickly or isn’t sure what to do next.
Get the objective clarity and platform shortcuts your team needs to move forward with complete confidence.
Nobody Owns AI Yet
If no one on your team currently owns AI governance, we can help you get started and show your staff how to manage it.
Board Alignment
If your board or leadership wants outside expertise, we can help your team assess its approach and clearly explain the risks, decisions, and next steps.
The Clock is Short
Our advisors help your team understand what needs to be done, prioritize the work, and move through the process more efficiently.
If you have someone who owns AI, buy the subscription and skip the advisory services.
If someone on your team can take responsibility for AI governance and has time to work through the platform, you may not need Advisory Services at all. That is the more affordable, better outcome, and it is what the product was built for. We will tell you so on the call rather than sell you an engagement you don’t need.
Try it free for 15 days and see if you really need advisory at all.
All 5 modules open, no credit card required. The platform is designed to guide non-technical users through building and documenting an AI governance program, including materials for leadership and board review. Two weeks is long enough to find out whether your team can run it on its own, and if it can, that is the best outcome available to you. The engagements will still be here.
Fixed scope. Published price.
Same principle as the product pricing page — you shouldn’t need a discovery call to learn a number. 5 ways in, priced by how much of the work is ours rather than yours. The nonprofit rate is 20% off, matching the platform.
Start small — your team already has this mostly in hand
Executive Strategy Session
For a leader with one decision and a date on it. A trustee asked a question at the last board meeting and the next one is six weeks out. A funder put an AI clause in the renewal and somebody has to sign it. Staff pasted client information into a chatbot and the board will hear about it.
- Pre-session intake and document review, so no time goes on discovery
- 90 minutes, up to six participants, recorded on request
- Written summary and recommendation within three business days
- One follow-up email round within 14 days
Already on Agency? Your plan includes one of these — say so when you book and we will not invoice it.
If you can name the document and the date, this is the right thing to buy — and if you cannot, say so on the inquiry and we will point you at something more affordable. Credited in full toward a larger engagement booked within 30 days. No subscription required.
Half-Day Training
Working training on the module you are rolling out next. Your team at the keyboard, on your own data, not a demo tenant.
- One module, chosen by you, taught against your real environment
- Up to 25 people — the whole team, not just whoever owns it
- Hands-on throughout: your team does the work and we coach
- Recorded, with a short written reference they keep
- Repeatable — book one per module as you roll each one out
The most affordable way to find out whether you need any of the engagements below.
Agentic Oversight Setup
For a team that is ready to deploy agents, or has already deployed AI agents, and now needs to know how to govern them. We review what you have — or what you are about to stand up — and show your people how to run it in GOVERNBOX.
- Review of your agent inventory, or of the agents you are about to put live
- Where human-in-the-loop checkpoints and approval gates actually belong
- Your incident playbook pressure-tested against real agent failure modes
- What a board and an auditor will ask about autonomy, and how to answer
Delivered as a variable number of advisory hours spread across the two-week window — not a full-time placement. Informed by agentic systems running in production, not a whitepaper.
Stand up the program — when there is no one to hand it to yet
Guided Launch
We help your team build its AI governance program rather than building it for you. We work alongside your team through the whole build, so the people who will own it afterwards are the people who built it.
- Facilitated platform setup across all 5 modules, with your team at the keyboard
- Stakeholder interviews across leadership, IT, program and legal
- Review and customize policies based on your organization, industry, and needs
- Board-ready documentation walkthrough
- Staff training and acceptable-use sign-off rollout
Includes a full year of Starter (the AI foundation plus one management module) if you don't already have a subscription — a $3,500 value, built into the fee. We set up whichever modules your plan carries.
Custom Governance Integration
The deep one. Integrate GOVERNBOX with the governance, risk, IT, and audit processes your organization already has in place — the ones with their own rules, owners and history, rather than a reference architecture nobody actually runs.
- Connect your GOVERNBOX program to the regulatory and compliance requirements your organization already follows
- AI and technology inventory built from your real stack, not a questionnaire
- Align GOVERNBOX risk tracking with the risk-management process your organization already uses
- Identity, security and reporting workflow integration
- Your team trained on maintaining the mappings once we are gone
Fit: regulated organizations with existing GRC, IT or audit obligations to reconcile.
Nonprofit rates: Executive Strategy Session $1,200 · Half-Day Training $2,400 · Agentic Oversight Setup $4,400 · Guided Launch $10,000 · Custom Governance Integration $16,000. The nonprofit rate is public and selectable at checkout — for an engagement, tell us in the inquiry and it is quoted at that rate.
The training program — one half-day per module
Each module gets its own half-day, taught on your own data rather than a demo tenant. Run one before you commit to anything larger, or run all 5 over a quarter as you roll the modules out. Up to 25 people per session, recorded, $3,000 each.
AI Governance
Logging AI tools as use cases with named owners and review dates, running the prohibited-use screen, setting risk tiers, generating a policy and taking it through approval, and reading the crosswalk to find what is still uncovered.
Enterprise Risk Management
Building the register out of guided discovery, scoring likelihood against impact, assigning treatments and owners, and putting key risk indicators on a review cadence somebody actually keeps.
IT Inventory & Management
Standing up the device, software and systems registers, catching shadow IT through the intake lane, and running access reviews and offboarding so no account is left open behind a leaver.
Data Management
Classifying what you hold, mapping flows and cross-border transfers, setting retention schedules with real disposal dates, and working a data subject request against its legal clock.
Privacy
What HIPAA, GDPR and CCPA actually oblige you to do, generating the privacy policy, handling a privacy-typed incident, and what a notice has to say before you rely on it.
Bundling all 5 modules is a scoping conversation, not a listed price — most organizations should space them out rather than buy them at once.
Fractional Governance Officer
A quarterly cadence after any engagement — board reporting reviewed and presented, program health checks, and a regulatory watch across the jurisdictions you operate in. 3-month minimum. Requires an active GOVERNBOX subscription, because we are advising your team on running a program — so there has to be a program.
Consultants leave a PDF. We leave a team that can run it.
We do not build your program and hand it over — that is the model that leaves you dependent. We work through it with your team, in your own environment, so the people who will still be here next quarter are the ones who know how it was built and why. Advisory ends. The capability does not.
| What we work through together | What your team can do once we leave |
|---|---|
| AI use-case inventory and named owners | Log a new tool, assign an owner, and run the review cycle without asking anyone |
| Policies, committee charter and acceptable-use standard | Regenerate a policy when the law moves, and explain every clause's citation to an auditor |
| Risk register and scoring method | Score, treat and retire risks on their own judgment, not ours |
| Impact assessment process | Run an assessment on a new system start to finish, unaided |
| Technology and data inventory | Keep renewals, retention dates and shadow AI current as a routine, not a project |
| The board briefing and the story behind it | Present it themselves next quarter, and answer the follow-up questions |
More than a collection of templates.
GOVERNBOX is built on a researched, maintained library of governance requirements and controls. Every engagement is delivered against the same library the platform runs on — written by hand, versioned, cited clause by clause, and kept current as the law moves. This is the part a consulting deck cannot leave behind.
Including all 6 dedicated U.S. state AI laws, plus specific statutes from 27 states — across 91 versioned source files and all 5 modules. Policies generated in GOVERNBOX can be traced back to the specific governance requirements and sources they are based on.
Your consultant may be more affordable. They will not be a system of record.
Frequently asked questions
Doesn't this contradict “no consultant needed”?
Fair challenge. The platform genuinely does replace the consulting engagement for most organizations, and that claim stands. Advisory exists for the minority who have no internal owner, a board demanding independence, or a deadline measured in weeks. If none of those describe you, buy the subscription — we will say so directly rather than sell you an engagement.
Do I need a GOVERNBOX subscription to hire you?
For the strategy session, no — book it and pay for it on its own. For Guided Launch and the retainer, yes: we are advising your team on how to run a program in the platform, so there has to be a platform. Guided Launch includes a year of Starter if you don't already have one.
What happens when the engagement ends?
Nothing is handed over, because nothing was ever ours to hand. Your team did the work with us in your own environment. When we leave, the people who own the program are the people who built it — and they keep running it on your subscription.
Why is the price on the page?
Same reason every platform price is. You shouldn't need a discovery call to learn a number, and a page that hides one is behaving like the thing we sell against.
Is there a nonprofit rate?
Yes — 20% off, the same rate as the platform. The nonprofit rate is public and selectable at checkout; for an engagement, tell us in the inquiry and it is quoted at the nonprofit rate.
Who actually does the work?
The leadership of Gradient Descent LLC, the firm that authored the control library. Not a subcontracted delivery team, and not a certified partner working from a playbook.
Tell us where your program stands.
No deck, no discovery phase — a working session. Tell us what is in front of you and which engagement looks right, and we will confirm the scope or tell you that you don’t need us.
Tell us where your program stands
No deck and no discovery phase. Tell us what is in front of you and which engagement looks right, and we will confirm the scope or tell you that you don’t need us.
A person replies within one business day. Scope and price are confirmed in writing before anything is invoiced.
- We reply within one business day, from a person.
- If a session is the right start, you can put it on the calendar yourself — no gate.
- If the subscription is the right answer instead, we say so and point you at the trial.
- Scope and price are confirmed in writing before anything is invoiced.
GOVERNBOX.ai Advisory Services is a trade name of Gradient Descent LLC. Engagements help your team produce a defensible, documented governance program that you review, approve and own. Nothing here is legal advice, and no engagement makes an organization legally compliant.
The people who wrote it.
GOVERNBOX.ai Advisory Services is delivered by the leadership of Gradient Descent LLC, the parent firm of GOVERNBOX.ai. You are not getting a certified partner reading from the manual. You are getting the people who wrote it.
A former federal Chief Information Officer, Chief AI Officer and Chief Privacy Officer (SES) who ran governance, cybersecurity and privacy programs at four U.S. agencies and deployed first-of-kind agentic AI systems in production.
Two decades directing large-scale technology portfolios, enterprise risk management and applied machine learning — which is why the control library is authored and versioned the way it is, rather than assembled from templates.
D.Eng. candidate in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, George Washington University · Forbes Technology Council
Gradient Descent LLC is an independent company. GOVERNBOX.ai is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or produced on behalf of any government agency.
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