AI Centre of Excellence Charter Template
Last updated: 2026-08-14
An AI centre of excellence charter should be two pages. Longer charters are not read and are therefore not binding. It states the organisational outcome rather than the function’s activities, the primary and secondary operating mode, the decision rights held, and explicitly what the function will not do.
A charter earns its place by settling arguments before they happen: what the centre decides, what it advises on, and what it declines. A charter that lists activities settles nothing.
The template
Keep it to two pages. Longer charters are not read and therefore not binding.
1. Purpose. One paragraph. The organisational outcome, not the function's activities.
2. Operating mode. Primary and secondary. State the mode you are explicitly not adopting and who holds that responsibility instead.
3. Scope. In scope by domain and system type. Out of scope, stated plainly.
4. Decision rights. What the CoE may decide alone. What it recommends. What it may block, and the appeal route.
5. Services and response times. Each service, its intake route, and its published turnaround.
6. Funding. Central, chargeback, or hybrid. Rate card if applicable.
7. Staffing. Roles, seniority, and embedded placement policy including maximum duration.
8. Measures. Three to five outcome measures with named business owners. Reporting cadence and audience.
9. Governance. Who the CoE reports to, meeting cadence, and escalation path.
10. Sunset conditions. The observable conditions under which the function dissolves, and the review date at which those conditions are assessed.
How to use it
- Hold it to two pages. Length is not thoroughness; an unread charter binds nobody.
- State the organisational outcome in the purpose, not the function’s activities.
- Name the decision rights the centre holds and, just as explicitly, what it will not do.
- Have it signed by the executive who will be asked to enforce it, not only by the function that wrote it.
This template comes from the AI Centre of Excellence: A Practical Playbook, which sets out the reasoning behind it, the rules of thumb that govern its use, and the signals that tell you the approach is failing. The full playbook is also available as Markdown. See all AI governance templates.