Independent third party · Enterprise AI governance
56North measures the AI systems running in your company, arranges for qualified experts to put them to the test, and gathers the dated evidence regulation requires.
A free 30-minute first conversation, no commitment. If the timing is not right, we will tell you.
Airworthiness score
66out of 100
+4 points over 30 days
In one sentence
56North is the control plane for enterprise AI: the system of record that inventories, measures and proves the behaviour of every AI system in an organisation, whatever the vendor.
The regulatory clock
The EU AI Act applies in stages. Past deadlines are already enforceable; the next ones need preparing now, because an inspector will ask for dated evidence.
Penalties of up to €35M or 7% of worldwide turnover.
The problem
The ones an executive team asks as soon as AI enters day-to-day operations.
Including the ones nobody declared: individual accounts, features switched on by a software update.
A named person. It is the first thing an inspector asks for, and rarely what they find.
On which cases, how often, for how many people. And who actually uses them.
The risk class depends on the use: screening applications and summarising a meeting carry different obligations.
Nobody reviews the AI's answers. Drift is found too late.
At an inspection, good intentions are not enough: you need dated evidence, with the name of who produced it.
What we do
Software alone proves nothing. You also need people who test, and a team at the helm. The three components can be bought separately and work together.
The software
The registry of your AI systems, their risk class over time, the regulatory timeline, the five-dial score and the monthly flight report. One platform, whatever your vendors.
Prove, with our partners
Trained people put your AI systems to the test and review their answers: bias, hallucinations, data leaks, procedures not followed. Their findings enter the Cockpit as dated evidence, with their author.
Operate, with our partners
An AI engineering team that connects your existing systems to the Cockpit, keeps them running in production, monitors them and produces the report. The equivalent of a security operations centre, for AI governance.
To start
A map of your AI systems, their classification, and what would be missing in front of an inspector.
One domain at a time
Human resources, customer relations, finance: one domain after another. The score is always calculated by the machine, never promised.
Ongoing
Continuous measurement, testing campaigns, monthly flight report.
A free 30-minute first conversation, no commitment. If the timing is not right, we will tell you.
The Cockpit
A published, versioned methodology, identical for every client. Each score carries the version of the method that produced it and the scope it covers.
The quality of the answers, assessed on your real conversations.
The cost per case handled, and its trend.
The registry, the evidence, the deadlines that apply.
Who actually uses each AI system.
How fresh the knowledge your AI systems rely on is.
A score from 0 to 100, a grade from A to E, a 30-day trend.
A few questions per AI system, and the registry fills itself.
One address and one key to change in the software.
The dials light up with the first calls.
Every month, the flight report is frozen when published and sealed with a fingerprint that shows it has not been altered since.
Human in the Loop
A vendor cannot judge its own biases. With our partners, trained people put your AI systems to the test and review their answers, and every finding becomes dated evidence in the Cockpit.
Activated on engagement, with our partners
Bias, hallucinations, data leaks, procedures not followed: scenarios written for your use cases, run against your AI systems as they actually run.
Each case is judged by two independent people. When they disagree, a third opinion decides.
Samples reviewed by people residing in the European Union, within the scope set in the purchase order.
Building and annotating the scenarios that then serve as your regression tests.
Every finding enters the Cockpit as dated evidence, with its author: what an inspector accepts, and what no vendor tool can produce about its own AI.
Factory
Most of a company's AI is already in place, across several vendors. The Factory connects it to the Cockpit, keeps it reliable in production and spares you from building a dedicated team.
Set up with a subscription, with our partners
Plugging your AI systems into the Cockpit: gateway, logs, then vendor connectors as they become available. You move from the “declared” to the “connected” level.
Tests replayed after every vendor release, knowledge sources kept up to date, access rights reviewed, costs tracked.
Drift is detected and reported before a customer, an employee or an inspector finds it.
The monthly flight report, prepared by the Factory and published by a person.
Independence rule: a Human in the Loop campaign never tests a system the Factory built or maintains for the same client. Building and controlling stay separate.
Sovereignty
Entrusting the oversight of your AI systems to a tool that depends on a foreign giant would make no sense.
Hosted by 56North
A dedicated instance. Quick start, updates included.
Installed at your site
For regulated sectors. Installation led by our team.
The same scoring method in both cases.
How we build
A trusted third party is also judged by how it builds its own tool.
Written, published, then frozen during pilots. No scale is ever adjusted to suit a client.
A numbered register: the date, the decision, the reason. We demand of ourselves what we demand of your AI systems.
Every fix comes with a guard test that stops the problem from coming back.
What can be measured is measured automatically; what rests on a declaration is flagged as such.
A feature only appears on this site once it has shipped.
One instance per client, a daily backup and a weekly copy.
What binds us
No models, no integration, no cloud. Whoever builds your AI systems cannot grade them.
Scaleway hosting, open-source components, a European evaluation model. Two technical subcontractors, no more.
Written, versioned, identical for all. Partners may sell it; the calculation, the sealing and the thresholds stay with us.
We prepare your file so it is ready the day someone asks for it. We never call it a certification.
Who is behind it
56North was founded by Pascal Mennesson, co-founder of Maltem Consulting Group, which he grew from 2001 to more than 1,100 consultants in 12 countries before its exit. It starts from a simple observation: companies adopt AI faster than they learn to govern it.
LinkedIn ↗Questions
Yes. The 30-minute first conversation is free and comes with no commitment. You leave with a first map of your known AI systems and likely gaps, and we tell you plainly whether further work is worth it.
The list of every AI system a company uses, each with its purpose, its owner, its risk class under the EU AI Act and the related evidence. It is the starting point of any AI governance.
Each vendor proves the compliance of its own tool. 56North sits on the side of the company that deploys AI, and consolidates its whole estate, whatever the supplier.
No. We prepare an evidence file ready for an inspection. The scope covers the obligations of a company that deploys AI systems, in particular articles 26 and 50 of the EU regulation.
Yes: the Cockpit alone, Human in the Loop campaigns alone, or the Factory to run your systems. They work best together, but nothing forces you to take everything.
Yes. As SaaS, on a dedicated instance, or on-premise, in your own infrastructure. The method and the score are strictly identical.
It enters the registry, is classified and receives its evidence. The regulation asks you to govern it, not necessarily to measure it. The score always states the scope it covers.
Bias detection runs on fabricated scenarios, with none of your data. Reviewing real conversations is reserved for auditors residing in the EU, and specified in the purchase order.
Probably, if you have subsidiaries, customers or job applicants in the EU. And beyond the regulation, the question remains: do your AI systems do what you think they do?
Free first conversation
We review the AI systems you know about, spot the blind spots and leave you with a first map: your known AI systems and the likely gaps. If the timing is not right, we will tell you.