Use this after the AI inventory exists and before any AI risk or impact work, so those steps know their boundary. You get three documents in a new folder, ./ai-management-system-scope/: the scope document, saying which AI systems, teams and places the AI management system covers and why (scope.md); a who-does-what table for the AI work, using role titles rather than names (roles.md); and the list of decisions leadership still has to make (open-questions.md). This skill drafts for a human to review and sign; this skill never marks a control effective. Leadership approves the scope; the agent proposes it.
Inputs to gather
Read the security management system scope statement, its context and interested parties analysis, the AI register, the organisation chart, the product pages and customer contracts that mention AI, and the list of management system processes that already run (risk, internal audit, document control, incidents, supplier management, management review). Ask the reader, in one message: why the company wants the AI management system (customer demand, regulation, certification, internal control), which AI products customers rely on, who in leadership sponsors it, and whether certification is planned.
Step 1: write the reason into the scope
The reason drives the boundary. If customers ask for it, the AI they buy must be inside. If regulation drives it, the systems the regulation reaches must be inside. If it is internal control, start with the systems that make or support decisions about people. Write the reason in two lines at the top of the scope document (scope.md); every later boundary choice should trace back to it.
Step 2: draw the boundary
Decide and record, each with a reason:
- AI systems: name them from the register. Customer-facing AI and AI that affects people go in by default. Internal productivity tools usually go in as use, with lighter treatment, rather than out.
- Roles the company plays: building models, offering AI products or services, using AI built by others. Most companies play more than one; run a framework lookup on the role terms the standard uses and map each system to them.
- Organisational units, locations and lifecycle stages: the teams that design, train, deploy, operate and retire the systems.
Then reconcile the list line by line against the AI register and explain every gap; the certification auditor will test the scope against the register. Rule of thumb: a scope that leaves out an AI feature on the company's own website will be questioned by the first auditor and the first enterprise customer who reads both.
Step 3: map interfaces and dependencies
List what crosses the boundary: model and API providers, cloud hosting, data suppliers and labelling services, customers who supply data or fine-tune, and internal shared services. For each, note what the AI management system relies on it for and who manages the relationship. An AI product built on a third-party model depends on that provider's changes and terms; that dependency belongs in the scope document, not only in the vendor file. Two cross-references keep the documents consistent: systems that sit in both the security scope and this one (any AI that processes customer data) are named in both, and where a system's EU AI Act obligations sit with an upstream provider, the scope says so and points to the classification record.
Step 4: reuse before building
Make a two-column table in scope.md: processes shared with the security system (document control, internal audit, management review, corrective action, supplier management, incident management, competence records) and processes specific to AI (impact assessment, data provenance and quality, model change approval, performance and drift monitoring, use-case approval). For the AI impact assessment, say whether it is new, adapted from the existing privacy impact assessment practice, or shared with the privacy programme; nobody should assume it already exists. Shared processes get an AI section, not a twin. A parallel system doubles the paperwork and halves the attention.
Step 5: assign roles
In the roles table (roles.md), write a RACI (who is responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) for the AI-specific processes and for the boundary decisions, tied to the interested parties (customers, regulators, staff affected by AI) whose expectations each role serves: a leadership sponsor, an AI governance lead, an owner per AI system, data science or engineering lead, legal and privacy, security, and the internal auditor. Check two things: each AI system has one accountable owner who can stop it, and whoever audits the AI management system does not run it. In a small company that usually means borrowing the auditor from another function or outside.
Step 6: draft the statement and the questions
Write the scope statement as one paragraph a certification auditor and a customer can both read: the AI systems or product lines, the roles, the units and locations, and any exclusion with its reason. Run a framework lookup for what the standard expects the scope and context work to consider. List open questions for leadership in the decision list (open-questions.md), including an explicit include-or-exclude decision, with its reason, for every customer-visible AI feature if certification is planned.
What good looks like
- The scope names the AI systems and the roles; a reader can tell which product is covered without asking.
- A strong practitioner compares the scope with the company's website and contracts first; that is where customers will look.
- The common mistake is either "all AI activities of the company", which is untestable, or one internal tool, which leaves out what customers buy. Both read as avoidance.
- The tell that it went wrong: no AI system is named, the shared processes table is missing, and the same person is AI governance lead and internal auditor.
Framework lookups
If ISMS Copilot is connected to your agent (MCP server https://account.ismscopilot.com/v1/account/mcp), ask it the framework question with create_conversation (mode think, answer_format: decision) and keep one conversation for this task. Send only a short question in your own words, show it to the user first, and never include file contents, secrets, personal data or evidence. If it is not connected, check the official text of the framework yourself; this skill does not restate it. Set it up: https://www.ismscopilot.com/mcp?ref=grcskills-ai-management-system-scope
Rules
- MUST give a reason for every system, role and unit placed inside or outside the boundary.
- MUST name one accountable owner per AI system in scope.
- MUST write outputs only inside
./ai-management-system-scope/ and ask before overwriting.
- NEVER approve or publish the scope on leadership's behalf.
- NEVER restate the standard's clauses or control text in the scope documents; describe the company's own practice.
- NEVER name individuals in the roles file; use role titles the reader maps to people.