Governance control plane for policy governed reliance on artificial intelligence in regulated workflows

A distributed computer system for enforcing policy governed execution of a regulated workflow across multiple administrative domains, comprising:

• (a) one or more processors and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, implement a governance control plane executed by the one or more processors and configured to evaluate a machine-interpretable policy snapshot applicable to a workflow instance, determine one or more required actions that must be satisfied prior to authorization of a state-advancing operation, maintain a machine-executable authorization state for the workflow instance, and generate a cryptographically verifiable governance record bound to the workflow instance and an evaluated policy snapshot;
• (b) a first computing domain executing a reasoning service configured to generate a proposed output associated with the workflow instance;
• and
• (c) a second computing domain executing a governed connector interfaced with a downstream acceptance endpoint of a system of record;
• (d) wherein the governance control plane is configured to generate a readiness artifact derived from the governance record and bound to the workflow instance and the evaluated policy snapshot;
• and
• (e) wherein the governed connector is configured to permit, block, or defer a state-advancing operation derived from the proposed output only upon cryptographic verification of the readiness artifact at the downstream acceptance endpoint,
• such that partitioning generation of the proposed output and execution of the state-advancing operation across administrative domains does not bypass enforcement of the policy snapshot.

A computer-implemented method for enforcing policy governed execution of a regulated workflow, the method comprising:

• (a) receiving, by one or more processors, a workflow event associated with a workflow instance,
• (b) evaluating, by the one or more processors, a machine-interpretable policy snapshot applicable to the workflow instance to determine one or more required actions that must be satisfied prior to authorization of a state-advancing operation;
• (c) maintaining, in computer memory, a machine-executable authorization state for the workflow instance based on satisfaction or non-satisfaction of the required actions;
• (d) generating, by the one or more processors, a governance record that is cryptographically bound to the workflow instance and the evaluated policy snapshot and that records satisfaction or non-satisfaction of the required actions;
• (e) detecting a reliance event that would advance a state of the workflow instance, the reliance event comprising at least one of write back, commit, finalize, dispatch, execution, or authorization of a downstream operation;
• and
• (f) prior to permitting the reliance event, cryptographically verifying the governance record or a readiness artifact derived therefrom and permitting, blocking, or deferring the reliance event based on the verification,
• such that authorization of the state-advancing operation is technically prevented unless satisfaction of the policy snapshot is proven at the time the reliance event is attempted, independent of where an artificial intelligence output associated with the workflow instance is generated or how the output is labeled.