The Compliance Challenge
The EU AI Act is here. After years of debate, Europe has established the world's first comprehensive AI regulation framework. Organizations deploying AI systems now face real obligations — risk assessments, transparency requirements, documentation standards, human oversight mandates.
For many companies, this creates a serious problem.
Most AI deployments weren't built with compliance in mind. When teams experimented with ChatGPT integrations or deployed ML models for internal processes, regulatory documentation wasn't the priority. Now they need to retrofit governance onto systems that were never designed for it.
Compliance expertise is scarce. Understanding AI regulation requires a rare combination of legal knowledge, technical depth, and operational experience. Most organizations don't have this in-house.
The stakes are high. Non-compliance with the EU AI Act can result in fines up to €35 million or 7% of global turnover — whichever is higher. This isn't theoretical risk anymore.
Introducing Shikamaru
Shikamaru is KVA's AI compliance and governance platform. We built it because we saw a clear gap: organizations need practical tools to manage AI risk, not just regulatory consultants delivering PDF reports.
The name comes from a character known for strategic thinking and seeing several moves ahead. That's the approach we take to AI governance — anticipating requirements, identifying risks early, and building sustainable compliance frameworks.
Core Capabilities
Automated Model Auditing
Shikamaru continuously monitors AI systems for compliance with EU AI Act requirements. Our platform analyzes:
- Model architectures and training methodologies
- Data lineage and dataset characteristics
- Performance metrics and bias indicators
- Documentation completeness
You get real-time visibility into your AI portfolio's compliance status, not quarterly audit reports that are outdated before delivery.
Risk Classification Engine
The EU AI Act categorizes AI systems by risk level — unacceptable, high-risk, limited risk, and minimal risk. Different categories have different requirements.
Shikamaru automatically classifies your AI deployments based on their use cases, affected populations, and technical characteristics. You know immediately which systems require enhanced governance and which have lighter obligations.
Documentation Generator
High-risk AI systems require extensive documentation: technical specifications, training data descriptions, human oversight procedures, accuracy metrics, and more.
Our platform generates compliant documentation automatically, pulling information from your systems and formatting it for regulatory submission. What used to take legal teams weeks now takes hours.
Human Oversight Management
The EU AI Act mandates meaningful human oversight for many AI applications. Shikamaru helps you:
- Design appropriate oversight workflows
- Track human review activities
- Document intervention capabilities
- Demonstrate compliance to auditors
The Dashboard Experience
C-level executives and governance teams need visibility, not technical deep-dives.
Shikamaru provides executive dashboards showing:
- Overall compliance score across your AI portfolio
- Systems requiring attention (prioritized by risk)
- Upcoming regulatory deadlines
- Audit trail for governance decisions
- Benchmark comparisons against industry peers
Board members and risk committees get the oversight they need without drowning in technical details.
Who Needs This
Enterprise organizations deploying AI at scale. If you have dozens or hundreds of AI systems in production, manual compliance management is impossible.
Financial institutions facing enhanced scrutiny. Banks, insurers, and asset managers face some of the strictest AI governance requirements. Credit scoring, fraud detection, and algorithmic trading all require robust documentation.
Healthcare organizations using AI for clinical decisions. Medical AI carries inherent risk and regulatory complexity. Shikamaru helps navigate the intersection of AI regulation and existing healthcare compliance frameworks.
Public sector entities deploying citizen-facing AI. Government use of AI faces intense public scrutiny. Transparency and accountability aren't optional.
Why We Built This
At KVA, we deploy AI systems for our ventures and our clients every day. We've experienced the compliance challenge firsthand.
When we looked at existing solutions, we found:
- Consulting firms offering expensive, one-time audits that become stale quickly
- GRC platforms adding AI checkboxes to their existing frameworks without real technical depth
- Point solutions addressing narrow compliance issues without holistic governance
None of these solved the actual problem: continuous, automated, actionable AI governance.
So we built what we needed ourselves. Now we're making it available to others.
The European Approach
Shikamaru is built in Europe, for European regulation, with European values.
Sovereignty by design. Your compliance data stays in EU data centers. No transatlantic data transfers, no foreign government access risks.
Regulation-native. We don't retrofit American compliance tools for EU requirements. Every feature is designed around EU AI Act obligations.
Privacy-first. Shikamaru is fully GDPR compliant. We minimize data collection and maximize your control.
Looking Ahead
The EU AI Act is just the beginning. We're seeing similar regulatory frameworks emerge in the UK, Canada, and across Asia. Organizations that build robust AI governance now will have a significant advantage as regulation spreads.
Shikamaru is designed to evolve with the regulatory landscape. As new requirements emerge, the platform adapts — keeping you compliant without constant reinvention.
Get Started
AI governance isn't optional anymore. The question is whether you approach it reactively — scrambling to comply after problems emerge — or proactively, with systems designed for continuous compliance.
Shikamaru helps you choose the proactive path.
Shikamaru is currently available to select enterprise clients. Contact us to discuss your AI governance needs or request a platform demonstration.