ISO recently submitted for a vote among its members the Final Draft International Standard ("FDIS") for the first management system standard to be developed by the ISO and IEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC1/SC42) on Artificial Intelligence. ISO/IEC 42001 ("Information technology - Artificial intelligence - Management system") is due to be published at the end of 2023.
AI is here to stay, but certain characteristics of AI, such as the ability to continuously learn and improve or the lack of transparency or clearly understandable logic, may warrant different safeguards if they raise additional concerns compared to how a task would traditionally be performed.
Another set of factors influencing the establishment and implementation of the AI management system are the many use cases of AI and the need to find the right balance between governance and innovation mechanisms. Organizations can choose to apply these requirements using a risk-based approach that is common to most management system standards, to ensure that the appropriate level of control is applied to the specific AI use cases, services or products within the scope of the organization.
Potential users will benefit from the fact that ISO/IEC 42001 follows the ISO Harmonized Structure for management system standards, which will facilitate its implementation in harmony with other management system components.
Nigel H. Croft
Member of the APCER Advisory Board
