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KPMG

Trusted AI Framework

Guide how AI systems are managed across the AI lifecycle in a responsible and ethical manner, to accelerate value with confidence.

Library section
Companion references: Trust & governance
Published
framework document dated April 2026, published June 2026
Destination it supports
AI systems managed responsibly and ethically across the AI lifecycle, so that value can be accelerated with confidence.
Read the framework: Trusted AI Framework

KPMG describes Trusted AI as “our strategic approach and framework to guide how AI systems are managed across the AI lifecycle in a responsible and ethical manner, so we can accelerate value with confidence.” It rests on three principles (values-driven, human-centric, trustworthy) and ten ethical pillars: reliability, security, safety, privacy, sustainability, data, fairness, transparency, accountability and explainability. These are applied across five lifecycle stages from strategy and development to deployment and monitoring, and a KPMG Trusted AI council guides them in practice. The framework governs KPMG’s own AI use and underpins its client-facing AI Trust services, so its audience is both enterprise leaders and the risk, compliance and technology teams who run AI. KPMG Trusted AI framework; The KPMG Trusted AI approach (PDF)

Five Forces coverage map

How far the framework covers each force (coverage, 0 to 3) and how far it tells you what to do about it (actionability, 0 to 2).

  1. Internal Pressures & Capabilities Deep treatment Implementable 5/5 Internal: coverage 3 of 3, actionability 2 of 2

    Three principles, ten pillars, five lifecycle stages and the Trusted AI council (incl. professional training) from The KPMG Trusted AI approach (Tier 1); AI systems inventory, governance and AI system cards as a "source of truth" from AI Trust services (Tier 1); risk inventory with control considerations organised under the ten pillars from An Illustrative AI Risk and Controls Guide (Tier 1); system-card testing methodology and risk-team upskilling from The AI system testing imperative (Tier 1)

  2. Global & Geopolitical Dynamics Not addressed No practical guidance 0/5 Geopolitics: coverage 0 of 3, actionability 0 of 2

    No coverage of sovereignty, cross-border data or geopolitics found in The KPMG Trusted AI approach, AI Trust services, An Illustrative AI Risk and Controls Guide or The AI system testing imperative (Tier 1)

  3. Societal & Regulatory Pressures Deep treatment Implementable 5/5 Society: coverage 3 of 3, actionability 2 of 2

    Ethical pillars, regulator trust and public-interest commitment from The KPMG Trusted AI approach (Tier 1); "AI readiness and compliance" with evolving regulation from AI Trust services (Tier 1); controls aligned with regulatory and industry standards from An Illustrative AI Risk and Controls Guide (Tier 1); NIST and ISO alignment and defensibility to regulators from The AI system testing imperative (Tier 1)

  4. Industry & Competitive Pressures Acknowledged Directional 2/5 Industry: coverage 1 of 3, actionability 1 of 2

    Risk resilience as a basis for competitive advantage, plus vendor-tool selection guidance, from The AI system testing imperative (Tier 1); alliance-based agent governance using Microsoft Agent 365 from KPMG and Microsoft scale trusted enterprise AI agents (Tier 1)

  5. Human Needs & Aspirations Developed Directional 3/5 Human needs: coverage 2 of 3, actionability 1 of 2

    Trust of clients, communities and regulators; public interest; safety pillar on "societal well-being"; fairness for "all people"; transparency disclosures to stakeholders, all from The KPMG Trusted AI approach (Tier 1)

Total 15/25

For a companion reference the total reflects Five Forces coverage, not quality within its discipline.

Strategic Center Evaluation

Strategic Parameter Framework’s Treatment Rating
Time Horizon Five operational lifecycle stages (strategy and development → deployment and monitoring); no strategic planning window is declared. The KPMG Trusted AI approach Implicit
Automation / Augmentation The human-centric principle commits to “empower and augment human capabilities”, but automation is not named as a distinct orientation and no guidance is given on choosing between the two. The KPMG Trusted AI approach Implicit
Idea-Execution Dynamic AI is framed as a way to “unleash creativity” and let people “reimagine how they spend their days”, without the economic mechanism of falling execution barriers. The KPMG Trusted AI approach Implicit

Not part of the /25.

Adjacent Publisher Context

The following materials are published by KPMG and address topics relevant to the Five Forces, but are not explicitly positioned as components of the KPMG Trusted AI Framework. They are not included in the /25 coverage score above.

Force Adjacent Source (URL + date) Relevance Summary
Internal; Societal & Regulatory KPMG International first Big Four entity to attain ISO 42001 certification (Tier 2, 11 Dec 2025) KPMG’s own AI management system certified to ISO/IEC 42001; it references Trusted AI principles but reports a certification, not a framework component.
Internal; Societal & Regulatory KPMG LLP among first in the US to receive ISO 42001 certification (Tier 2, page dated 18 Nov 2025) The US member firm’s ISO 42001 certification and readiness approach.
Internal; Societal & Regulatory Agentic AI risk: Building safe autonomy before it scales (Tier 2, Sep 2026) Governance of autonomous agents, written by KPMG’s Trusted AI team; the framework is not cited in the body text.
Human Needs & Aspirations Trust in artificial intelligence (global study with the University of Melbourne) (Tier 2, 2025, page updated 2026) Multi-country public sentiment on AI trust, acceptance and regulation expectations.
Human Needs & Aspirations Global study reveals trust of AI remains a critical challenge (Tier 2, Apr 2025) Headline findings from the global trust study.
Internal; Global; Industry Global AI Pulse Q3 2026 (Tier 2, Sep 2026) Quarterly executive survey on AI at scale, accountability, resilience and economics.
Global; Industry KPMG 2025 Global CEO Outlook (Tier 2, 2025) CEO priorities on AI investment within the wider economic and geopolitical context.
Internal; Industry Transforming the Enterprise (Tier 2, Sep 2026) Operating-model transformation research, linked as related content from the framework page.
Industry & Competitive Pressures KPMG and Anthropic sign global alliance (Tier 2, May 2026) Technology alliance, linked as related content from the framework page.

Narrative Strengths & Gaps

Force 1 — Internal Pressures & Capabilities (5/5). This is the framework’s core. It combines three principles, ten pillars and five lifecycle stages, with a Trusted AI council that sets direction and trains KPMG professionals (The KPMG Trusted AI approach). The implementation layer is unusually concrete. An Illustrative AI Risk and Controls Guide organises an inventory of AI risks, with control considerations, under the ten pillars. AI Trust services adds AI systems inventories and AI system cards as an asset ledger. The AI system testing imperative describes the framework and its patented system cards as “a valuable roadmap for moving beyond abstract principles”. The Risk and Controls Guide sits behind a registration form, but it is publicly obtainable, so Actionability is scored as implementable. The systems inventory and system cards give a current-state record of the organisation’s AI estate within governance, not of its AI strategy as a whole (Map: Partly met). The five lifecycle stages give each AI system a governed route from strategy and development to monitoring, rather than a route for the organisation (Course: Partly met). Its destination is explicit: AI managed responsibly and ethically across the lifecycle so that value can be accelerated with confidence.

Force 2 — Global & Geopolitical Dynamics (0/5). The framework materials do not address sovereignty, cross-border data or geopolitical tension. They treat legal compliance as jurisdiction-neutral through the privacy and data pillars. KPMG covers the wider global context in its CEO Outlook and AI Pulse research (Section 2.75), keeping the framework focused on trust in individual AI systems.

Force 3 — Societal & Regulatory Pressures (5/5). Ethics and regulation are built into the framework’s foundation. Each of the ten pillars is defined as an ethical commitment across the lifecycle, and the foreword commits KPMG to “serve the public interest” and keep the trust of regulators (The KPMG Trusted AI approach). AI Trust services puts “AI readiness and compliance” with evolving regulation first among its service areas. The Risk and Controls Guide and the testing article tie controls to recognised standards such as NIST and ISO, and to defending AI outputs before regulators, so compliance runs through governance, controls and testing.

Force 4 — Industry & Competitive Pressures (2/5). The AI system testing imperative treats AI risk resilience as the “prerequisite for scaling AI responsibly and securing a true competitive advantage”. It also offers practical vendor-tool advice: a tool that “cost-effectively addresses 80 percent of your needs may be a more strategic choice”. The KPMG–Microsoft agreement extends the framework through an ecosystem platform for governing agents. Market positioning and industry adoption strategy fall outside the framework’s governance remit.

Force 5 — Human Needs & Aspirations (3/5). The framework directly addresses the trust of clients, communities and regulators. It defines safety as protecting “societal well-being” and fairness as “inclusive engagement for all people”. The transparency pillar requires that stakeholders be told when they are dealing with AI or AI-generated content (The KPMG Trusted AI approach). These are stated as principles. KPMG’s large evidence base on public sentiment (the Trust in AI study) sits next to the framework rather than inside it, and talent-market expectations from prospective employees are not developed.

What this framework does not give you. A map of where the organisation stands across its AI strategy; the systems inventory records the AI estate. Without a clear picture of where it stands, an enterprise cannot tell which moves matter most. A route for the organisation as a whole; the lifecycle stages govern individual AI systems. Without a route, even a well-chosen destination stays an aspiration. A way to choose your own destination; it supports AI managed responsibly and ethically across the lifecycle. An enterprise that has not stated its own ambition cannot check whether this destination is the right one for it. Global & Geopolitical Dynamics. Sovereignty, cross-border data rules and export controls can change which AI an enterprise can use, and where.

Synthesis. The KPMG Trusted AI Framework serves Chief Risk Officers, Chief AI officers, internal audit and compliance leaders most directly, particularly in regulated enterprises moving AI and agents from pilot to scale that need principles they can trace to controls, system cards and certifiable management systems. Its destination fits organisations whose ambition includes provable trust in every AI system they run. On the Strategic Center it is Implicit throughout: lifecycle stages rather than planning horizons, a stated commitment to augmentation without a choice model, and creativity framed without the idea-execution mechanism. The Five Forces lens adds a strategy-wide map and route, a way to set the strategic destination, and the outward-looking dimensions — geopolitical, competitive and market — to a governance core that is deep and practical.

Sources

Tier 1 (scored), recency-gate pass unless noted:

  1. KPMG Trusted AI framework – live 2026; canonical anchor
  2. The KPMG Trusted AI approach: Accelerating the value of AI with confidence (PDF) – Apr 2026, published Jun 2026; linked from anchor
  3. AI Trust services – updated Aug 2026; linked from anchor
  4. An Illustrative AI Risk and Controls Guide – page dated Nov 2025; “aligned with the KPMG Trusted AI framework”; gated download
  5. The AI system testing imperative: Building trust in an era of increasing risk – May 2026; cites the KPMG Trusted AI framework and system cards
  6. KPMG and Microsoft scale trusted, enterprise AI agents globally – 9 Jun 2026; linked from anchor; “enhance the KPMG Trusted AI framework”

Tier 2 (reported in Section 2.75, not scored):

  1. KPMG International first Big Four entity to attain ISO 42001 certification – 11 Dec 2025
  2. KPMG LLP among first in the US to receive ISO 42001 certification – page dated 18 Nov 2025
  3. Agentic AI risk: Building safe autonomy before it scales – Sep 2026
  4. Trust in artificial intelligence – 2025, page updated 2026
  5. Global study reveals trust of AI remains a critical challenge – Apr 2025
  6. Global AI Pulse Q3 2026 – Sep 2026
  7. KPMG 2025 Global CEO Outlook – 2025
  8. Transforming the Enterprise – Sep 2026
  9. KPMG and Anthropic sign global alliance – May 2026

Tier 3 (third-party corroboration, not scored):

  1. None used.

Excluded on recency or quality (not scored):

  1. None. Every source surfaced in research loaded on verification and fell inside the recency window.

This library is our opinion, based on each organisation's publicly published framework as at the date on that assessment, linked from the assessment page. It is offered to help you see a framework's coverage and its open dimensions, not as a comparison, ranking, or endorsement. The organisations named have not reviewed or endorsed these assessments. Sapience provides advisory services that sit alongside, and sometimes in contrast to, the work assessed here.

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