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At Credo AI, we've spent five years operationalizing AI governance for enterprises navigating global markets. Through hundreds of implementations of NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001, as well as global governance frameworks, we've seen what wins contracts and what doesn't.
What consistently determines who wins in procurement is measurable trust: quality, security, reliability, fairness, transparency, and oversight demonstrated through contextual, comprehensive, and continuous AI governance and risk mitigation. Enterprises and agencies that operationalize these controls accelerate adoption, build customer confidence, and win export-bound opportunities.
The message from enterprise and government leaders is clear: trust isn't a nice-to-have for AI exports—it's the deciding factor.
A Trust Operating System for American AI
We support the Trump Administration's American AI Exports Program and look forward to continued engagement to ensure its success. In our recent submission to the Department of Commerce, we argue that a Trust Operating System, a governance and assurance layer consisting of operational AI governance frameworks, AI risk management, auditable oversight, and security mechanisms should be treated as a core component of that stack, not an afterthought.
This Trust Operating System is the competitive differentiator that will determine which nations dominate global AI markets. Countries evaluating AI imports are no longer just comparing performance benchmarks; they are assessing whether American AI systems include transparency, accountability, standards alignment, and oversight mechanisms that match their regulatory expectations and national strategies.
What We're Hearing From the Field
Enterprise leaders tell us they're losing contracts when they cannot demonstrate trust. Buyers in allied markets—Europe, Japan, South Korea, the Middle East—are demanding AI governance: evaluations, oversight, defensible documentation of AI risk management across the AI lifecycle and compliance to their internal policies or external standards and regulations.
Government and critical-infrastructure buyers increasingly view opaque systems as security and supply chain risks, particularly in sensitive or high-risk use cases. Documented governance and third-party certifications provide visibility into these opaque systems while providing security assurances for high-risk applications.
We are seeing this pattern in real procurements. European buyers weigh visible governance and EU AI Act–aligned risk management heavily when choosing between U.S. and non-U.S. systems. Indo-Pacific enterprises are advocating for alignment with national AI frameworks before signing, and governments around the world are prioritizing standards alignment and supply chain transparency.
Why This Matters
Through Credo AI's governance platform, we see what separates organizations that successfully scale AI from those that stall: trust and security grounded in scientific methods and ground realities. This means risk management across the AI lifecycle, transparency reports understandable to buyers and regulators, and documented controls that can be independently assessed. Companies with actionable oversight across the AI "bill of materials"—applications, models, agents, data, and third-party AI—demonstrate consistent trust across jurisdictions and gain durable competitive advantage.
Modular, standards-aligned AI governance that scales globally and aligns with AI capabilities also proves that organizations can adapt controls and oversight as priorities, regulations, and risks evolve without constant reinvention. This adaptability is exactly what sophisticated buyers, especially governments and regulated industries, now expect in long-term AI partners.
Our Recommendations
First, ensure trust is a key component of the American AI stack. The Executive Order defines exports as hardware, models, and applications. Buyers demand more—a Trust Operating System that includes AI risk management and monitoring, data governance frameworks, transparency tools, supply chain documentation, and standards alignment. These capabilities are what close export deals in practice, and they should be explicitly recognized, prioritized, and supported by the American AI Exports Program.
Second, weight AI governance in evaluation and scoring. Consortia and corresponding proposals should be evaluated on their AI governance capabilities, recognizing that governance determines both security posture and commercial success in allied markets. Consortia with robust, standards-aligned frameworks that can demonstrate alignment with NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001, or the EU AI Act win sophisticated market contracts; those treating AI governance as afterthought face barriers regardless of technical strength.
Third, provide governance technical assistance as a distinct pillar of support. Many providers excel at hardware or models but lack AI governance expertise and tooling. Federal support should connect consortia with specialists, fund standardized templates and tools, support third-party assessments and certifications, and create sandboxes and testbeds for validation, treating governance as specialized capability rather than overhead.
Finally, lead through standards diplomacy. When American-aligned frameworks become global baselines, U.S. companies operate in familiar environments while competitors adapt. The U.S. government should prioritize investment in NIST/CAISI and participation in ISO/IEC, and other global standards bodies to advance sector-specific benchmarks and use-case-level best practices.
The Bottom Line
American AI wins with measurable trust and oversight that doesn’t compromise our AI technology superiority and security. When procurement requires documented governance, proof of managed risk and strong alignment with standards, benchmarks and regulations, "black box" systems face structural disadvantages regardless of performance.
As a NIST AI Safety Institute Consortium member, Credo AI is implementing this daily with organizations around the world turning governance from a compliance checkbox into a growth and export enabler. Business and technology leaders buy assurance, not just algorithms, and the American AI Exports Program will succeed when a Trust Operating System is recognized as a force multiplier for national competitiveness and economic advantage
American companies that lead with trust will dominate the next era of the AI race.
DISCLAIMER. The information we provide here is for informational purposes only and is not intended in any way to represent legal advice or a legal opinion that you can rely on. It is your sole responsibility to consult an attorney to resolve any legal issues related to this information.
