The Six Levels of AI Maturity: Where Does Your Organization Rank?

In 2026, AI adoption is no longer the differentiator, AI maturity is. While many organizations are successfully piloting models, most are finding that scaling them requires a level of oversight they haven't yet built.

‍

Is your AI governance program a tailwind for innovation, or a manual speed bump?

‍

Don't guess your progress. Download the 2026 Executive Playbook to access the full 6-level Maturity Self-Assessment.

‍

Mapping the Journey

The "Enterprise AI Governance Maturity Model" provides a roadmap for evolving from early exploration to governing at the speed of agentic AI.

1. Exploring (Level 1): You are baselining current usage, but "shadow AI" is likely rampant and responsibilities remain unclear.
2. Aligning (Level 2): You’ve defined enterprise AI principles, but decision-making is still ad hoc and fragmented across teams.
3. Formalizing (Level 3): Standardized intake and approval workflows exist on paper, but every new initiative still feels like a bespoke "fire drill".
4. Optimizing (Level 4): You have moved beyond spreadsheets to a unified control plane that makes governance a tailwind for deployment.
5. Governing at Scale (Level 5): You have enterprise-wide visibility across thousands of systems with dynamic risk management and regulatory traceability.
6. Governing at Speed (Level 5+): You are "Agentic-Ready," using AI-augmented governance to manage autonomous actors in real-time.

Why the Maturity Model Matters

The Enterprise AI Governance Maturity Model provides more than just a roadmap; it is the backbone for identifying the Governance Implementation Gap within your organization. Most enterprises are currently uneven, they may have formal policies on paper (Level 3) but remain in the dark with "Shadow AI" and manual inventory (Level 1).

This model enables leaders to:

‍

• Locate the Friction: Clarify exactly where your organization stands today across technology, people, and processes.
• Prioritize High-Impact Gaps: Identify where the business is already behaving at "Level 4" speed while your governance is still "Exploring" at Level 1.
• Position for Leadership: Moving from a Level 2-3 cluster to Level 4+ over the next 12-24 months is what positions you as an industry leader rather than a reactive follower.
• Future-Proof for Agents: Prepare for the shift toward "Governing at Speed," where governance must learn and adapt in near real-time to manage autonomous AI agents.

‍

Without this framework, your governance remains untapped expertise and scattered spreadsheets. With it, you turn governance into a tailwind for AI deployment rather than a speed bump.

‍

Where to Start?

Our research shows that fewer than one in five organizations have fully operationalized their AI practices. Progress isn't overnight, but you can see value quickly. Reaching Level 2 typically takes 2-3 months, while reaching the "Formalizing" stage takes 4-6 months. The key is identifying your biggest gaps, benchmark your organization against your peers with the 2026 Playbook today.