Audit Trail
A chronological, immutable record of every decision, action, and data access made by an AI agent.
Full Definition
An audit trail in AI governance is a comprehensive, tamper-evident log that records every input, reasoning step, tool call, API request, data access, and output generated by an AI agent throughout its operation. Audit trails are essential for regulatory compliance (particularly under the EU AI Act Article 12), incident investigation, and organizational accountability. They enable forensic reconstruction of any AI decision — answering what happened, why it happened, which data influenced the outcome, and who was responsible for oversight. Enterprise governance platforms automatically generate and store audit trails with cryptographic integrity guarantees.
Related Terms
AI Governance
The framework of policies, processes, and technologies used to ensure AI systems operate ethically, transparently, and in compliance with regulations.
EU AI Act
The European Union's comprehensive legal framework for regulating AI systems based on risk classification.
Explainability
The ability to understand and communicate why an AI system made a specific decision or produced a particular output.