AI governance could be something that you only worry about when it "actually matters" (lawsuits, attention from regulators etc). Most organisations rather not burden themselves with governance and be burdened with what is perceived as annoying bureaucracy.
But this is a short-term way of thinking about governance. And it is a form of thinking that, if pervasive across other parts of the organisations, could be a downfall.
To build moats, you need customers to "invest" in your product or service. For them to "invest", they need to be a position to trust your product or service. Governance helps build trust, and when the hype and bravado is eventually stripped away, this is the currency that keeps customers around.
Long-term investments are what Jeff Bezos focused on with Amazon, and now the company is reaping the rewards - think logistics, warehouses data centres, all things that take time to get right.
Long-term thinking is needed to do hard things. It is conducive for the incentives, processes and people required to see out projects that take time to execute.
And doing hard things is an effective way of gaining a competitive advantage.
Most organisations will not do hard things like governance at first. There is therefore a great advantage to be gained from doing this that others are unwilling to do.
Governance is hard because it is not a one-time box-tick. It is a ongoing process, involving an array of structures, processes and people. And this grows as the organisation grows. It means more bureaucracy, more conflicting incentives, more hassle, more nonsense, more friction, and so on.
But by taking governance head on, and early on, it presents another means for longevity and outlasting the competition. When governance is built in, and not just an add-on, it puts you ahead of others that start thinking about it too late.
Do governance because it is hard. The greatest things are often the hardest to achieve.