ISO 42001

What it requires

ISO 42001 specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an AI management system (AIMS). It follows the Annex SL high-level structure, making it integrable with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001. The standard covers AI policy, risk assessment, impact assessment, data management, and responsible development.

Key clauses

• Clause 4: Context of the organisation, interested parties, and AIMS scope
• Clause 5: Leadership commitment, AI policy, and organisational roles
• Clause 6: Planning, AI risk assessment, and AI impact assessment
• Clause 7: Support resources, competence, awareness, communication, and documented information
• Clause 8: Operational planning, AI risk treatment, and AI system impact assessment
• Clause 9: Performance evaluation, monitoring, internal audit, and management review
• Clause 10: Continual improvement, nonconformity, and corrective action
• Annex A: Reference control objectives and controls for AI
• Annex B: Implementation guidance for AI controls

How Vigilens automates it

Vigilens maps every ISO 42001 clause and Annex A control to executable rules. Where ISO 42001 requires documented information, Vigilens collects it from your engineering tools automatically. Where it requires risk assessment, Vigilens links to the classification layer and maintains a live risk register.

• Full Annex A control coverage with acceptance specifications
• Cross-mapping to EU AI Act (Clause 7.5 "documented information" vs Article 11 "technical documentation")
• AI risk assessment linked to classification results and control verdicts
• AI impact assessment tracking with continuous evidence refresh
• Management review inputs generated from live governance data

ISO 42001 and EU AI Act

ISO 42001 is widely expected to become a harmonised standard under the EU AI Act. Organisations that implement ISO 42001 through Vigilens will have a head start on demonstrating conformity, with cross-framework mapping already built into the control structure.