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CISA OT AI integration principles
governmentCredibility Rating
4/5
High(4)High quality. Established institution or organization with editorial oversight and accountability.
Rating inherited from publication venue: CISA
Relevant to AI safety practitioners concerned with deployment risks in high-stakes physical systems; CISA's OT focus makes this distinct from typical software AI governance guidance, addressing scenarios where AI misalignment or failure could directly harm physical infrastructure.
Metadata
Importance: 52/100guidance documentreference
Summary
This CISA guidance document outlines principles for safely and securely integrating artificial intelligence into operational technology (OT) environments such as industrial control systems and critical infrastructure. It addresses unique risks posed by AI in high-stakes physical systems where failures can have severe real-world consequences. The document provides a framework for operators and vendors to manage AI-related cybersecurity risks in OT contexts.
Key Points
- •Identifies distinct security challenges when deploying AI in OT environments, including legacy system vulnerabilities and physical safety implications.
- •Emphasizes that AI failures in OT can cascade into physical harm, making reliability and resilience requirements stricter than in typical IT contexts.
- •Recommends principles such as secure-by-design, maintaining human oversight, and ensuring AI systems fail safely in critical infrastructure settings.
- •Addresses supply chain risks and the need for transparency from AI vendors deploying in operational technology environments.
- •Supports coordination between cybersecurity and safety engineering disciplines when integrating AI into industrial control systems.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Cyberweapons Risk | Risk | 91.0 |
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Principles for the Secure Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Operational Technology | CISA
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PUBLICATION
Principles for the Secure Integration of Artificial Intelligence in Operational Technology
Publish Date December 03, 2025
Related topics:
Cybersecurity Best Practices , Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience , Industrial Control Systems
Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to increase efficiency and productivity, enhance decision-making, cut costs and improve customer experience, but introducing AI in operational technology (OT) environments can introduce risks that require careful management to support the safety, security, and reliability of OT systems.
CISA and the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC), in collaboration with federal and international partners, co-authored this joint cybersecurity guidance for critical infrastructure owners and operators integrating AI into their OT systems. This guidance outlines four key principles owners and operators can follow to realize the benefits of integrating AI into OT systems while reducing risk. It focuses on machine learning, large language model-based AI, and AI agents because of the complex security considerations and challenges they pose, but the guidance also applies to systems augmented with traditional statistical modeling and logic-based automation. The authoring agencies encourage critical infrastructure owners and operators to review and follow this guidance to achieve a more balanced approach to integrating AI into their OT environments and to continuously monitor, validate, and refine their AI models.
In addition to ASD’s ACSC, this joint guide was developed in collaboration with:
National Security Agency’s Artificial Intelligence Security Center ( NSA AISC )
Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI )
Canadian Centre for Cyber Security ( Cyber Centre )
German Federal Office for Information Security ( BSI )
Netherlands National Cyber Securi
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