Synopsis: In this Techstrong AI video, Niranjan Vijayaragavan, chief product and technology officer for Nintex, explains why regardless of the regulations being applied to artificial intelligence (AI), organizations would be better served by enforcing a robust set of governance policies.
In this Techstrong AI interview, Niranjan Vijayaragavan, CTO and chief product officer at Nintex, discusses the evolving landscape of AI regulation and the balance between fostering innovation and ensuring responsible usage. He notes that while U.S. and EU regulators have relaxed some AI rules, enterprises must still proactively define their own guardrails. He emphasizes the importance of governance across four key areas: data, models, infrastructure, and AI performance. Given the global nature of AI deployments, companies must navigate varying jurisdictional requirements while prioritizing consumer protection, data privacy, and model explainability.
Vijayaragavan suggests a hierarchy for implementing AI safeguards, starting with protecting customer data and ensuring the integrity of AI responses, followed by securing proprietary models and infrastructure. He advocates for embedding security responsibilities across all teams—from data science to application developers—and incorporating AI-specific controls as nonfunctional requirements in the software development lifecycle. He compares AI models to databases, recommending role-based access control at the output level to prevent misuse, particularly for sensitive queries.
While regulations will likely set a minimum baseline, he believes market forces and customer expectations will drive companies to adopt stricter standards. Many organizations are already including detailed privacy and model usage terms in contracts, even without regulatory mandates. Leading companies are distinguishing themselves by focusing on tenant-level privacy, model auditability, and transparent, repeatable AI behaviors. Ultimately, Vijayaragavan sees the broader AI ecosystem organically evolving toward a responsible, secure, and innovation-friendly standard—driven more by peer influence and business needs than government mandates.
