NARA Guidance: Decide When AI Material Becomes a Record
Explore the criteria for determining when AI-generated materials become official federal records under NARA's 2026 guidance. Understand how to distinguish records from non-records based on use, preservation, and agency reliance. Learn to document decisions with a Records Decision Log and apply authorized retention schedules or consult Records Management Officers for proper disposition. This lesson helps you manage AI-related records responsibly within federal workflows.
A team can intervene quickly once a workflow drifts, but records management fails earlier, when the team assumes the answer is automatic. The common mistake is treating anything that involved AI as automatically a Federal record, as though the tool decides the status. That belief shows up as two bad habits that feel safe in the moment. One is saving everything indefinitely because nobody wants to delete the wrong thing. The other is deleting AI working material casually because it looks like scratch work. Both choices dodge the real question, which is how the material was used in ...