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PRD-STD-010: AI Product Safety & Trust Controls

Standard ID: PRD-STD-010
Version: 1.0
Status: Active
Compliance Level: Level 2 (Managed)
Effective Date: 2026-02-18
Last Reviewed: 2026-02-18

1. Purpose​

This standard defines mandatory safety and trust controls for user-facing AI product behavior in production. It extends AEEF from AI-assisted software delivery controls to AI system behavior controls, including harmful output prevention, abuse resistance, integrity safeguards, and rapid containment.

Without explicit trust controls, AI features can create disproportionate user, legal, and business harm even when engineering SDLC controls are fully compliant.

2. Scope​

This standard applies to:

  • AI-driven ranking, recommendation, summarization, generation, classification, moderation, and routing behavior that affects users or business outcomes
  • AI product features in web, mobile, API, and automation surfaces
  • All risk tiers where AI output can influence user exposure, policy enforcement, or decisions

This standard does not replace PRD-STD-001 through PRD-STD-009. It adds production behavior controls required for AI product operation.

3. Definitions​

TermDefinition
AI Product FeatureA shipped capability where model output directly influences user-facing behavior or operational decisions
Harmful OutputOutput that violates policy, causes safety harm, or creates material legal/reputational risk
Integrity EventA trust-impacting event such as coordinated abuse, policy evasion, or harmful output amplification
Safety GateA required pre-release control verifying harmful-output risk is within approved thresholds
Kill SwitchA tested mechanism to disable or degrade AI behavior immediately
Safe-Mode FallbackA lower-risk degraded mode that limits behavior while preserving core service continuity

4. Requirements​

4.1 Risk Tiering and Policy Boundaries​

MANDATORY

REQ-010-01: Every AI product feature MUST be assigned a risk tier (Tier 1/2/3) before release, with named accountable owner roles.

REQ-010-02: Each feature MUST maintain a policy boundary specification that defines prohibited outputs, restricted behaviors, and escalation thresholds.

REQ-010-03: Tier 2 and Tier 3 features MUST define user-impacted cohorts and integrity-sensitive segments requiring segmented evaluation.

4.2 Pre-Release Safety and Abuse Evaluation​

MANDATORY

REQ-010-04: Every release candidate MUST pass a safety gate with no unresolved severe harmful-output scenarios.

REQ-010-05: Tier 2 and Tier 3 features MUST undergo adversarial abuse testing (prompt attacks, policy evasion, abuse amplification patterns) before launch.

REQ-010-06: Release evidence MUST include known failure modes, mitigations, and residual risk sign-off by Product, Engineering, and Governance owners.

RECOMMENDED

REQ-010-07: Organizations SHOULD maintain reusable adversarial test suites for abuse classes relevant to their platform risk profile.

4.3 Launch Controls and Containment​

MANDATORY

REQ-010-08: AI feature launches MUST use controlled rollout (canary, percentage rollout, or limited cohort) with automatic halt thresholds.

REQ-010-09: Every feature MUST have a tested kill switch and safe-mode fallback prior to production rollout.

REQ-010-10: Tier 3 features MUST have explicitly assigned on-call ownership for trust incidents during rollout windows.

4.4 Production Monitoring and Trust Telemetry​

MANDATORY

REQ-010-11: Production telemetry MUST include, at minimum:

  • safety/policy violation rate
  • user-report rate for AI output quality or harm
  • segment-level degradation signals
  • override/rollback trigger counts

REQ-010-12: Critical integrity alerts MUST route to on-call owners within 5 minutes and be tracked as security/governance events.

REQ-010-13: Repeated warning-threshold breaches over 7 days MUST trigger formal governance review before continued scale-up.

4.5 Incident and Recovery Requirements​

MANDATORY

REQ-010-14: SEV-1 and SEV-2 AI trust incidents MUST trigger immediate containment actions (rollback, traffic reduction, or feature disablement).

REQ-010-15: Trust incidents MUST preserve model/prompt/runtime evidence and produce a corrective action plan before restoring full traffic.

REQ-010-16: Restoring full traffic after containment MUST require cross-functional sign-off (Product, Engineering, Governance/Security).

5. Implementation Guidance​

Minimum Trust Control Pack​

Teams SHOULD establish:

  1. Policy boundary document with prohibited outputs and decision thresholds
  2. Adversarial abuse test suite by risk tier
  3. Rollout policy with halt criteria
  4. Kill switch runbook and safe-mode playbook
  5. Trust telemetry dashboard with segment drill-down
  6. Incident template with root-cause dimensions and control updates

Example Trust Gate Decision Record​

AI Trust Gate Decision: APPROVE | CONDITIONAL | REJECT
Feature: <name>
Version: <model/prompt/runtime>
Risk Tier: <1|2|3>
Safety Result: <pass/fail + key metrics>
Abuse Test Result: <pass/fail + scenarios>
Rollout Controls: <canary + halt thresholds + kill switch tested>
Approvers: <product, engineering, governance/security>
Date: <ISO 8601>

Minimum Operational Metrics​

Track at least:

  • harmful-output rate by severity tier
  • abuse-detection precision/recall trend
  • trust incident count and time-to-containment
  • auto-halt activations and false activations
  • user report deflection/appeal outcomes

6. Exceptions & Waiver Process​

Waivers are limited to non-safety procedural controls and MUST include:

  • business justification
  • compensating controls
  • named approver
  • expiration date (maximum 30 days)

No waivers are permitted for:

  • missing kill switch readiness
  • unresolved severe harmful-output scenarios at release
  • missing on-call ownership for Tier 3 features
  • bypassing containment for active SEV-1/SEV-2 trust incidents

8. Revision History​

VersionDateAuthorChanges
1.02026-02-18AEEF Standards CommitteeInitial release