Preparing for ISO 42001 and the future of responsible AI

[Matthew Joslin_AppFox_]

AIMS and why we should care

AI is dominating the conversation when it comes to the ways we live our lives inside and outside of work. That’s the obvious backdrop to ISO/IEC 42001, the new standard providing a roadmap for AI-management systems (AIMS) as well as helping manage AI protocol and adoption in ways that are safe, responsible and maintain customer confidence.

Organisations in the SaaS space, as pioneers of phenomenal power unlocked by AI, have been the quickest to demonstrate governance to customers and auditors with several early adopters, including Miro, Cognizant and Integral Ad Science, have already announced accredited ISO/IEC 42001 certifications, signalling growing market demand for certifiable AI governance.

As with many other regulations, ignoring ISO 42001 (or equivalent AI governance frameworks) will soon start exposing companies to commercial, insurance, reputational and contractual risk, making now the time to start operationalising many of the recordkeeping, access control and workflow elements that auditors will look for in Confluence.

What does ISO 42001 actually entail?

ISO 42001 is “the world’s first standard of its kind” and exists solely to monitor, govern and sanction the responsible development and use of AI systems - comprising of 10 main clauses, as well as Annex-level controls.

The good news is that the structure of ISO 42001 intentionally mirrors other well-known ISO management-system standards (e.g. for cybersecurity), which actually makes it surprisingly easy to integrate, especially if you already have existing compliance frameworks.

Challenges in real-world compliance

ISO/IEC 42001 follows the ISO management-system structure (Clauses 4–10 contain the normative requirements), with Annex A listing suggested controls and Annex B providing guidance on their implementation.

In practice, the latter means significant documentation, clarity on roles/responsibilities, tracking of AI-use cases, risk assessments, audit trails, and continuous improvement.

Many organisations struggle not because they lack the will to be compliant, but because documents get scattered, reviews are manual and data access is uncontrolled, making it hard to achieve the much sought after single source of truth.

Without proper planning, collaboration and tooling, ISO-aligned AI governance can quickly become a heavy administrative burden, instead of delivering the risk mitigation benefits it should.

Building smart infrastructure for AIMS in Confluence

Confluence (though not essential) is very well-suited, as a central repository for AIMS documentation (policies, risk assessments, impact analyses, audit logs, etc.), helping with the “context,” “documentation,” “planning,” and “support” clauses of ISO 42001.

Using Confluence with easily integrated apps from the Marketplace, you can quickly transform it from a simple internal wiki into a robust AIMS infrastructure, reducing risk, improving transparency, and preparing your organisation for audits while you’re at it.

You will likely find yourself in need of a way of building structured content-approval workflows to ease documentation governance, which is where tools like Workflows for Confluence come in.

Or, elsewhere, the data classification levels, corresponding access restrictions, audit changes, and data detection/redaction for sensitive materials found in Compliance for Confluence can help you comply with the rigorous data controls required under ISO 42001.

Where should I start?

The landscape is going to keep evolving when it comes to AI, and its implementation and regulation should not be viewed as just “another regulatory checkbox”.

Really, ISO 42001, along with parallel regulations like the EU AI Act, is an opportunity to bake AI governance and ethics deeply into your organisation’s DNA before it’s too late.

Do you have the documentation, review workflows, and data-handling practices in place to support the wealth of productivity boons coming out of the AI revolution?

If you’re building out an AIMS in Confluence, you might want to explore how Confluence + Workflows for Confluence + Compliance for Confluence can help.

See our full breakdown on how to align Confluence with ISO 42001 in our deep dive available here.