# AI hardening

AI hardening is the work required to make an AI-enabled product, workflow or system reliable, controlled, observable and safe enough for production use.

## Direct answer

AI hardening checks whether AI work can be trusted in operation. It looks at ownership, evaluation, data boundaries, model behaviour, human control, failure modes, monitoring, integration and operating responsibility.

## Useful when

- AI features are moving from experiment to customer use
- AI workflows depend on private or sensitive data
- Human review and escalation are unclear
- Model behaviour needs to be evaluated and monitored
- Leaders need to decide whether to proceed, constrain or harden first

## Related terms

AI hardening, AI governance, AI production readiness, LLM application readiness, agentic workflow control, AI risk review