An AI task force that can't say no isn't governance

An AI task force that has never blocked a purchase order is a communications exercise, not governance.

Companies keep creating AI committees, working groups, and councils.

But forming the committee isn't governance.

Governance only exists when the group has the authority to make decisions:

Stop a vendor contract.
Interrupt procurement.
Reassign risk to a named owner.

Everything else is advisory.

And advisory frameworks are easy to ignore when the real decisions — which model to use, which supplier to choose, which data leaves the company — are being made on a deadline.

For SMEs, this matters even more.

Once a bad AI contract is signed, they often don't have the leverage to renegotiate it.

Which makes pre-signature veto power one of the few meaningful controls they have.

So the real question isn't whether your company has an AI task force.

Can it say no — and make it stick?