TRACE Methodology
TRACE is Impetora's four-pillar methodology for delivering enterprise AI in regulated industries: Trust, Readiness, Architecture, Citations.
What is TRACE Methodology?
TRACE makes the non-negotiables explicit. Trust covers EU data residency, audit trails, and EU AI Act alignment baked in before code ships. Readiness is the data and workflow audit done before building, so teams do not build on a foundation that will not hold. Architecture means production-grade systems rather than proofs of concept, with versioning, observability, and recovery designed in. Citations means every output is traceable to its source document, prompt, and decision step. TRACE is documented at /methodology and used as the spine of every Impetora engagement.
How does TRACE Methodology apply to enterprise AI?
Enterprises hiring Impetora can map TRACE directly to procurement and audit checklists. Each pillar produces specific artefacts: residency evidence, data audit reports, system design documents, and traceability logs.
Related terms
- Discovery Phase - The discovery phase is the first stage of an AI engagement, in which scope, data, workflows, success criteria, and constraints are mapped before any system is built.
- Pilot Phase - The pilot phase is the staged build of a working AI system on a narrow, real workflow with real data, evaluated against success criteria agreed in discovery.
- Production Phase - The production phase is the deployment, operation, and continuous improvement of an AI system in live use, with the controls and monitoring required for the workflow's risk class.
- Conformity Assessment - Conformity assessment is the formal process of demonstrating that a high-risk AI system meets the requirements of the EU AI Act before being placed on the market or put into service.
External references
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