AI arrives unannounced
Vendors add AI features through routine product updates, so yesterday’s approved tool may be running a model today.
Your vendors are shipping AI into your business faster than questionnaires can keep up. Here is how to see it, assess it and prove it is under control.
Third-party AI risk management is the practice of identifying, assessing and monitoring the AI that vendors, suppliers and partners use in the products and services they provide to you.
It extends third-party risk management (TPRM) to cover models, data and AI behavior, and replaces static questionnaires with current evidence of how each vendor’s AI is secured and governed.
Classic TPRM was built for data handling and uptime. AI changes what a vendor can do with your data, and it changes faster than an annual review cycle.
Vendors add AI features through routine product updates, so yesterday’s approved tool may be running a model today.
A self-reported answer describes a point in time. Models, data and providers change after the form is signed.
Inputs you share may reach a vendor’s model or its upstream provider, extending your AI supply chain.
Regulators and customers hold the deploying organization responsible for outcomes, whoever built the model.
Cranium AI runs third-party AI risk through the same AI Trust Loop it applies to the AI you build.
Inventory which vendors use AI, where and on what data, alongside your internal AI.
Monitor vendor AI for change instead of waiting for the next annual review.
Apply one policy to AI you built and AI you bought, mapped to the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001.
Test high-risk vendor AI with red teaming before it reaches sensitive workflows.
Request and share current evidence through Cranium AI Cards instead of static questionnaires.
An AI Card is a living transparency report for an AI system, mapped to the frameworks your stakeholders recognize.
Vendors publish AI Cards with artifacts attached, such as AI‑BOMs, vulnerability assessments and compliance framework mappings.
About AI CardsAI Cards let organizations request and share evidence with vendors in one place instead of email threads.
Vendor tenants are set up under the customer’s Cranium license, at no charge to the vendor.
Answer vendor-risk questions with a real-time AI Card generated from the AI‑BOM and kept current.
Third-party AI solution| Vendor questionnaire | Cranium AI Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Freshness | Point in time | Kept current |
| Source | Self-reported answers | Artifacts: AI‑BOMs, assessments, framework mappings |
| Frameworks | Varies by form | EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001 |
| Reuse | Rewritten per customer | Shared on request |
Straight answers, kept current. Last updated .
Ask us anything →It is the practice of identifying, assessing and monitoring the AI that vendors and suppliers use in the products and services they provide, with current evidence rather than one-time questionnaires.
Traditional TPRM focuses on data handling, security controls and availability. Third-party AI risk management adds the models, data and AI behavior inside a vendor’s product, which change more often.
An AI Card is a living transparency report for an AI system. It carries evidence such as AI‑BOMs, vulnerability assessments and compliance mappings to the EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001.
No. Vendor tenants are set up under the customer’s license at no charge to the vendor, so suppliers can publish AI Cards and share artifacts.
It is usually shared: vendor-risk and procurement teams run the program, security tests high-risk AI, and governance and compliance teams map it to policy and frameworks.
Start by finding out which vendors use AI and on what data. Then require current evidence, such as an AI Card, for the vendors that touch sensitive data or decisions.
See how Cranium AI Cards give your vendor-risk team current proof for every AI supplier.
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