Securing the Inference Lifecycle: The Five Stages Where the Enforcement Layer Has To Sit
The AI inference lifecycle is the sequence the application runs every time the model produces a response. Most security programs cover model training and the post-deployment monitoring stages but leave the inference path itself uninstrumented. This piece walks through the five stages of the inference lifecycle, the control points each stage exposes at the request boundary, the per-decision audit record the deployment has to commit, and the architectural pattern that closes the inference-time gaps a 2022-era AppSec program leaves open.