AQ Score™¶
Building the Measurement Standard for Governed Autonomous Action¶
AI agents and physical autonomous systems, governed and measured against the same scale. We are not aware of another filed architecture that covers both domains.
The Question Every Board Will Be Asked¶
Every board will eventually be asked the same question by their insurance carrier, their auditor, and their general counsel — and by their investors during due diligence:
"What's your AI's AQ Score™?"
Same question. Higher stakes.
Today, no one has a standard answer.
What Is the AQ Score?¶
AQ stands for Apex Quorum™ — the minimum threshold of governance signals required to make an autonomous actor's action binding. The AQ Score™ is the independent measurement standard being built for governed autonomous action, across both digital agents and physical autonomous systems. The scoring system is the AQ Scale™.
A composite score from −3 to +13 across 13 binary dimensions of:
- Enforcement — Are actions actually bound at the dispatch layer, before they execute?
- Evidence — Is every authorized action attested by infrastructure outside the governed system?
- Isolation — Is the autonomous actor structurally separated from the systems it touches?
- Oversight — Are humans authorized to intervene at the right moments, with the right authority?
The result is a single number that's independent, auditable, and comparable across vendors, models, deployment contexts, and domains.
This is what makes the AQ Score different from every other AI-governance score: it does not depend on the governed system narrating its own compliance. The same scale applies to a software agent, a drone over critical infrastructure, and an autonomous control loop inside a substation. The measurement layer survives the system being measured.
(For institutional context: AQ Score™ is the AI-governance analog to FICO — a measurement standard that does for autonomous systems what credit scoring did for consumer lending. The architectural precedent is in the receipts, not the headline.)
How to Get Your AQ Score¶
There are two ways to know your AQ Score today. Same scale. Different fidelities of certainty.
Tier 1 — AQ Quick Score™ (Free)¶
A self-assessment that produces your initial AQ Score™ in under 10 minutes. Indicative, broad, immediate.
- Time: ~10 minutes
- Format: Self-reported web assessment
- Output: Composite AQ Score on the -3 to +13 scale + tier interpretation
- Cost: Free
Tier 2 — AQ Score™ Long Form Assessment¶
An industry-specific assessment led by a trained AAM Cyber assessor, mapping your AI deployment against the appropriate framework crosswalk for your sector. Verified, audit-grade, attestation-ready.
- Time: 2-6 weeks engagement
- Format: Practitioner-led, evidence-backed assessment
- Output: Verified gap assessment + dimensional breakdown against the AQ Score criteria + framework-specific gap report + remediation plan
- Note: Readiness preparation and independent scoring are separate functions. This engagement is the first. It does not issue an AQ Score.
- Cost: Engagement pricing varies by industry and scope
Industry-specific crosswalks include:
| Industry | Framework Mapping |
|---|---|
| Healthcare | HIPAA + NIST AI RMF |
| Financial Services | NIST CSF 2.0 + SP 800-53 + DORA |
| Federal Contractors | CMMC + FedRAMP + NIST AI RMF |
| Insurance | NAIC MDL-668 + NIST AI RMF |
| Aerospace / UAS / AAM | FAA + IEEE P2863 |
| EU Operations | EU AI Act + DORA + ISO 42001 |
| Critical Infrastructure | NERC CIP + NIST CSF 2.0 |
Schedule a Long Form Assessment →
Why It Matters¶
FICO became the standard for consumer credit because someone built it before anyone asked for one. AQ Score™ is taking the same path — for autonomous systems across both digital and physical domains.
| Pressure | What They'll Ask |
|---|---|
| D&O insurance carriers | "What's the AQ Score of every autonomous system we'd underwrite?" |
| Auditors | "How do you demonstrate governance at the moment of action, not just on paper?" |
| General Counsel | "If an autonomous system acts and something goes wrong, what's our defensible position?" |
| Critical Infrastructure Directors | "What's the governance score on the drone, the agent, and the control loop?" |
| Investors (M&A and growth) | "Show us the autonomous-systems governance score before we close." |
When governance for autonomous action becomes a measurable line item — not a compliance overhead — every board needs an answer they can put in front of a third party.
One Standard, Two Substrates¶
The AQ Score is produced by a unified governance architecture with two substrates:
- Governed execution framework — the digital-domain substrate. The governed execution framework that classifies, bounds, and enforces AI agent actions at dispatch. Produces the AQ Score for software agents.
- TraceLock™ — the physical-domain substrate. Multi-domain sensing and governance for drones, RF, and critical infrastructure. Extends AQ Score™ into the physical world where pure-software controls break.
You don't need a different scoring system for healthcare than for federal contracting, or for AI agents than for autonomous drones. You need the same scale, applied through the framework that governs your specific regulatory environment and your specific autonomous actor.
That's how a customer can move from:
- "Quick Score: 5" (Tier 1 self-assessment)
- → "Verified Long Form Score: 3" (Tier 2 industry-specific assessment)
- → "Runtime AQ Score: 8" (after governance deployment, continuously calculated)
Same scale. Three fidelities of certainty. The score becomes a journey — the same journey whether the actor is digital or physical.
The Authority Stack¶
The AQ Score is grounded in published frameworks, federal references, and runtime evidence:
- NIST OLIR Trifecta cataloged — three Concept Crosswalks listed in the NIST Online Informative References (OLIR) catalog: Ref ID 220 (AI RMF 1.0), Ref ID 215 (CSF 2.0), Ref ID 217 (SP 800-53 Rev 5.2.0) — all Final Informative References (review concluded 2026-06-22, zero comments)
- NIST OLIR, Five Laws of AI Governance — three crosswalks catalogued as Draft Informative References on 2026-10-06, in 30-day public review
- A 24-control catalog across 9 governance domains, crosswalked to 17 frameworks through 300+ control mappings — NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001, EU AI Act, NIST CSF 2.0, SP 800-53 Rev 5.2.0, FAA UAS/AAM governance, NERC CIP, FedRAMP, CMMC, and more
- Patent-filed across five USPTO provisionals (45 patent families, 334 total claims) — dual-domain architecture, establishing priority dates for governed measurement across digital and physical autonomy
The doctrine behind the score is published in full: the Five Laws of AI Governance, the five-property test for what a standards body must satisfy, and AQ Score™ as the measurement layer across both domains.
Read the Foundational Framework →
Browse the Reference Library →
Engage¶
Get Your AQ Quick Score™ (Free)
Schedule a Long Form Assessment
Read About the Governed Execution Framework
Built by Pharns Genece, Architect — governed execution framework and the AQ Scale™.
AQ Score™, AQ Scale™, and Apex Quorum™ are trademarks of AAM Cyber. USPTO Intent-to-Use applications pending.