AI Assistant for Compliance and Governance

The thing that stops accountable teams from letting AI act isn't capability — it's not knowing what it will do, or being able to prove what it did. A governed AI assistant answers both. It asks before the actions that matter, and every action is recorded in a full audit trail. That combination — a check before, a record after — is what turns "we can't let AI touch that" into "we can, and here's the proof." Arlo is built this way: it does what you clearly ask, asks first when a request is unclear, would spend money, or can't be undone, and nothing happens without a trace.

This is governance as a function, not a vertical. Whether you're in a regulated industry or just an accountability-heavy org where a wrong send is expensive, the shape is the same: a human check on consequential actions and a defensible record of every one.

Approval where it matters

The moment an assistant can send, write, or spend, the question stops being "is it smart?" and becomes "what happens when it's wrong?" Arlo's answer: a clear request from you runs, and Arlo tells you what it did. It asks first when:

• Money moves — it would pay someone, or move or hold money.
• There's no undo — it would delete something that can't be restored.
• Its words go out in your name — a message it wrote would go to someone you know who hasn't seen it, and you didn't say to just send.
• The request is unclear — several options fit, it would reach someone you didn't mean, or it would go beyond what you asked.
• The instruction isn't yours — it came from a web page, a tool result, or anyone other than you.

Read-only work — research, summaries, drafts — flows without interruption. You can also tell Arlo to always ask before certain actions, so the check lands where your risk is. See when Arlo asks first.

Policy resolves per run

Governance isn't a switch you flip after the fact — it shapes the run from the start. Before Arlo does anything, every tool connection resolves through policy: what it may touch and how far it can go. So the boundaries are decided up front, not discovered after an action already fired.

1. Policy first. Each connection resolves through policy before the run begins.
2. Act on clear asks. Arlo reasons, drafts, and does what you clearly asked.
3. Ask when it matters. Money, anything that can't be undone, anything unclear, and any action you told it to always ask about come to you first.
4. Record it. The action, its sources, and the approval all land in the trail.

A full, exportable audit trail

You can't govern what you can't see. Every run produces an audit trail: every tool call, every source it read, every human approval, tied back to the original request. Nothing is summarized away — the record is the actual sequence of what happened and why.

	Ungoverned AI assistant	Arlo
Consequential actions	Acts on its own	Does clear asks, asks first on money or anything unclear
Who decides on risky actions	No one	You
Policy on tools it can touch	Rare	Resolved before every run
Record of what happened	None	Full audit trail
Export for review or audit	No	Yes, on request

That trail is what makes AI usable where accountability matters. When someone asks what the assistant did — a manager, a client, an auditor — there's a complete, exportable record to show, not a black box.

Role-based access for accountable teams

Governance at team scale means the right people hold the right controls. The baseline runs by default for every workspace, from the first dollar — per-run policy checks, approvals on consequential actions, and the full trace. For organisations that need them on top of that, admin policy, role-based access, SSO, and audit export are available on request, so an administrator sets what the assistant may do, roles determine who can do what, and the trail exports for review.

Governance that supports compliance workflows

Rules like the EU AI Act phasing in through 2026 increasingly expect a human check on consequential automated actions and a record that one was in place. Arlo's ask-first rules plus audit trail support that: a person's yes before money moves or anything permanent happens, and a defensible record after.

To be clear about what this is: these are governance controls that support your compliance workflows — ask-first rules and a complete audit trail — not a claim of specific certifications. Arlo gives your team a way to require a person's yes on the actions you choose, and to prove what happened. How that maps to your obligations is yours to define; Arlo makes it enforceable and recordable.

This is the AI colleague model with governance built in — across Slack, iMessage and SMS, WhatsApp, and live phone calls, working through 3,000+ tools and no-API browser use, all under the same rules and trail. See how it fits a single workday as an AI executive assistant, or browse more use cases.

Frequently asked questions

What makes an AI assistant "governed"? Three mechanisms working together: policy resolves each tool connection before a run begins, Arlo asks first on money, anything unclear, or anything that can't be undone, and every tool call, source, and approval lands in an exportable audit trail tied back to the original request.

Which actions require approval and which don't? A clear request from you runs, including a message or call that spends none of your money, and Arlo tells you what it did. It asks first when a request is unclear, would reach someone you didn't mean, goes beyond what you asked, would send its own wording to someone you know who hasn't seen it, moves money, deletes something that can't be restored, or came from a web page or anyone other than you. You can also tell it to always ask before certain actions.

What happens if an approval is never answered? It expires, and an expired approval cannot execute. The request fails closed rather than defaulting to send — so an unattended gate is a blocked action, not a silent one.

Can I approve something once and not be asked again? Yes, within a boundary you set. An approval can carry a standing grant scoped to a specific tool and action, with a required expiry date. The grant covers that scope until it expires or is revoked; a grant with no future expiry is rejected outright.

When Arlo asks, do I approve or edit the action? Approve or deny. You see the tool, the account, and a preview of what would be sent, then decides. There is no edit-in-place step — if the draft is wrong, you deny it and ask for a different one.

Is Arlo compliant with the EU AI Act or SOC 2? These are governance controls that support your compliance workflows — ask-first rules and a complete audit trail — not a claim of specific certifications. Rules like the EU AI Act phasing in through 2026 increasingly expect a human check on consequential automated actions and a record that one was in place. Arlo gives you the mechanism and the record; how that maps to your obligations is yours to define.

Can we export the audit trail? Yes. Audit export, along with admin policy, role-based access, and SSO, is available on request. Governance itself — per-run policy checks, approvals, and the full trace — runs by default for everyone, from the first dollar.

Try Arlo

Give an assistant real reach without giving up control. Arlo asks first when it matters, and every action is on the record. Try Arlo and let AI act where you couldn't before.