Tabletop exercise
A walk-through of the worst plausible incident, step by step (who notices, who can pause the system, what is communicated, how fast the business reverts to a manual fallback), done before an incident occurs to surface the holes a written plan hides. Scales from a formal cross-team exercise at enterprise size to a ten-minute think-through at owner size.
Defined in 2 GAGE programs, which carry 3 distinct definitions of it. The wording above is taught in Certified AI Transformation Professional (CATP).
How each discipline defines it
The same term does different work depending on who is using it. These are the definitions as each program teaches them, unedited.
A walk-through of the worst plausible incident, step by step (who notices, who can pause the system, what is communicated, how fast the business reverts to a manual fallback), done before an incident occurs to surface the holes a written plan hides. Scales from a formal cross-team exercise at enterprise size to a ten-minute think-through at owner size.
A low-cost rehearsal in which the people named in a playbook walk through a realistic AI incident scenario out loud to find gaps before a real attacker does; the core of the Drill-and-review stage.
A low-cost, discussion-based continuity test in which a team walks through the response to a scenario without touching any systems, surfacing decision points and gaps.
Where it is taught
The exact lessons this term appears in. The first module of every program is free with a free account.
- Security Governance for AI Deployments · AI Security Fundamentals, Certified AI Practitioner: Workplace Foundations
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery for AI · Risk, Resilience and Frontier AI, Certified AI Transformation Professional (CATP)
- Capstone Phase 4: The Blueprint and the Mandate · Capstone: Your Transformation Blueprint, Certified AI Transformation Professional (CATP)
Where it shows up at work
A definition is where Tabletop exercise starts. The lessons above teach it inside the competencies below, which are what job descriptions ask for and what the GAGE credential records. Every link here is drawn from the same careers map that builds a role's readiness check.
Classifies AI incidents by severity, runs containment, preserves evidence, manages notification, and closes the loop with lessons learned.
2 lessons on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Plans for a vendor failure, an unsafe model change or a suspended service: rollback, manual fallback, data export and safe decommissioning.
One lesson on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Designs decision rights, committees, intake, approval tiers and escalation so routine uses move and consequential uses get reviewed.
One lesson on this page teach it as a primary outcome.
Roles that hire for it
Each role page shows the full competency set, what the seat decides, and a readiness check against your own evidence.
- Chief Information Security Officer, AI security focusneeds it at depth
- AI Incident Response Leadneeds it at depth · 1 open posting this week
- Chief Risk Officer, AI risk editionneeds working knowledge
- AI Security Architectneeds working knowledge · 8 open postings this week
- Chief Privacy Officer, AI privacy editionneeds working knowledge
- Physical AI Safety Engineer, autonomous systems editionneeds working knowledge
How job descriptions say it
Postings rarely use the textbook word. These are the phrases the careers map reads as asking for the competencies above.
Where the frameworks place it: EU AI Act Article 73; ISO/IEC 42001 Annex A incident controls; NIST AI RMF MANAGE 4; DORA.
One interview question about it
An AI system has just caused harm to a customer. Walk me through the first 48 hours.
Asked of candidates for ai incident response and recovery. Answering it in your own words is exactly how a GAGE topic is passed, and the credential records the pass where an employer can check it.
If you come from another field
Some backgrounds already carry this competency, and the readiness check gives credit for it.
- Cybersecurity and IT carries it as work you can show: Incident playbooks and post-incident reviews are your artifacts.
- A cybersecurity or information assurance degree carries it as a claim to back up: Incident response is a course; AI incidents add model failure to the playbook.
Terms it appears with
Not an alphabetical neighbourhood: these are the terms taught in the same lessons, ranked by how often they appear together.