The ability to operate AI systems transparently, accountably, and in line with emerging regulation is critical, but it's challenging. Circial seeks to help organisations navigate through complexity and translate AI governance requirements into practical engineering reality: turning dense rulebooks like the EU AI Act and ISO/IEC 42001 into working technical controls that can be deployed, monitored and reviewed without undue burden.
Circial is building Boundsmap: a tool based on the Roles & Boundaries framework developed during founder Iain Barclay's doctoral research, which shows that AI obligations become visible at the boundaries between the key roles in a system: who supplied the data and model, who built the system, who integrated it, who operates it, and who it affects. When launched, Boundsmap will provide a quick way to map any AI-powered system into this framework, and clearly show where obligations lie, and whose they are.
Alongside this, Iain is available for freelance and fractional technical leadership work: bringing the same practical, engineering-led approach to organisations translating AI governance requirements like the EU AI Act and ISO/IEC 42001 into working systems.
Circial is a UK-based practice led by Iain Barclay, PhD — a time-served Principal Engineer whose doctoral research (2023) examined trustworthy data and AI accountability using decentralised technologies, building on an earlier MSc in Information Privacy and Security. That research is well-regarded, and related papers on transparency and accountability in AI systems have been cited over 300 times. Iain was an active contributor to IEEE 7001-2021, the IEEE Standard for Transparency of Autonomous Systems and has served as an expert reviewer for UKRI.
This background sits alongside years of hands-on delivery experience: leading technical proposal and deliverable authorship for funded AI/LLM research projects with industry and university partners, and translating emerging regulation into practical engineering requirements, from data governance architecture through to applied LLM tooling. Iain is currently pursuing ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Implementer certification, deepening this experience against the emerging regulatory and standards landscape for AI governance.
Whether you want to talk through how AI governance applies to your own systems, or know when Boundsmap is ready, we'd love to hear from you...
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