ISO 42001: understanding the standard dedicated to AI

Published in late 2023, ISO 42001 fills a gap: until now, organizations deploying AI systems had no standardized governance framework to refer to, unlike information security (ISO 27001) or quality (ISO 9001). The standard introduces the concept of an AI management system (AIMS), which covers the full lifecycle: design, training data, deployment, human oversight, and continuous improvement.

The organizations concerned are not only AI model vendors: any company that integrates generative AI into its processes, even through third-party tools, is subject to the standard's governance, risk management, and transparency requirements.

The domains typically assessed include AI governance (roles, responsibilities, steering committee), data management (quality, bias, traceability), AI-specific risk management (hallucination, model drift, vendor dependency), and human oversight of automated decisions.

For an SME that is just starting to formalize its AI governance, an initial diagnostic makes it possible to measure the gap between current practices and the standard's requirements, without waiting to be in a position to certify against it in the short term.