The National Institute of Standards and Technology is a US federal agency within the Department of Commerce. Originally established in 1901, NIST publishes technical standards, measurement references, and frameworks that are voluntary in name but effectively mandatory in practice for US federal contractors and many regulated industries.
NIST's cybersecurity publications — most notably the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), the SP 800 series on information security, and NIST SP 800-53 on federal security controls — are the default reference points for enterprise security programs in the United States. NIST's AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF), published in 2023, has become the US analogue to the EU AI Act's compliance approach.
For enterprises deploying AI, NIST frameworks are often the starting point for internal AI governance. They are non-binding for most private companies but become binding through contract language (federal contractors, government-adjacent industries) or through liability considerations (a plaintiff's ability to argue a company failed to follow widely recognized standards).