ISO 42001
A Practical 15-Step Guide to Building Your AI Management Systems Guide
ISO 42001 is the world’s first international standard for
Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS).
It helps organizations:
Govern AI systems ethically and safely
Identify risks like bias, explainability, and data misuse
Ensure trust, accountability, and legal compliance
“If AI is a powerful engine, ISO 42001 is the steering wheel and brakes”
Key Terms & Core Concepts
Artificial Intelligence (AI) AI Governance Machine Learning (ML) AIMS (AI Management System)
A system that mimics human The policies, processes, and A subset of AI where the A structured way (like ISO 27001
intelligence — like learning, oversight to make sure AI is system learns from data to for InfoSec) to manage and
decision-making, and used safely, ethically, and make predictions or improve your AI operations.
problem-solving. responsibly. decisions.
“Think of AI like a robot chef — governance ensures it doesn’t secretly add poison or break the kitchen.”
Scope, Boundaries & Context
Understand Your Identify Internal & Decide Scope Document the Scope
Organization’s AI Usage External Context Boundaries Clearly
Example scope:
What AI systems are you Legal requirements What’s included (e.g.,
“This AIMS applies to
using or building? (e.g., DPDP Act, GDPR) model dev,
the design,
deployment)?
development,
Example: Chatbot, Stakeholders
deployment, and
recruitment algorithm, (customers, regulators, What’s excluded (e.g.,
monitoring of the AI-
fraud detection model users) third-party AI services)?
powered resume
screening engine used
Social and ethical
in our HR platform.”
expectations
“Don't overcomplicate — start small with one critical AI use case and expand scope later.”
Leadership & Governance
Top Management Approve AI policy & Set direction for
ethical AI use
AI Governance Lead Oversees AIMS, policy enforcement
Model Owners Responsible for fairness, accuracy, and
explainability
AI Risk Officer Identifies and mitigates risks
AI Users Use AI Ethically
“Assign clear owners early. AI governance fails when it’s ‘everyone’s responsibility’ but no one’s accountability.”
Risk & Opportunity Management
AI risks aren’t just technical — they impact trust, fairness, compliance, and reputation.
Risk Impact Likelihood Mitigation
Add fairness tests & human
Bias in HR screening High Medium
review
Data drift Medium High Model retraining schedule
Black-box output High Medium Use explainable AI methods
Overfitting on data Low Medium Cross-validation & A/B testing
“Treat your AI like a product under test — list risks, assign owners, and revisit regularly.”
AI Objectives and Planning
Objective Example SMART Breakdown
Reduce bias in hiring model by 30% Specific, Measurable
Conduct AI impact assessment on
Achievable, Time-bound
100% models
Why Set AI Objectives?
Align AI initiatives with business goals Improve model explainability score
Relevant, Measurable, Timely
>80%
Improve governance, performance, and trust
Enable measurable improvement Train 100% staff on AI ethics policy Specific, Attainable, Time-bound
“Bad AI objectives sound good but can’t be measured. Always ask: ‘How will I prove this is achieved?’”
AI Governance Policies and Controls
Data & Privacy Policy Ethical AI Use Policy Explainability Policy Bias & Risk Mitigation Model Management
Policy Policy
What data is used, Fairness, non- Ensuring outputs can Continuous testing Versioning, approval
stored, shared discrimination, and be understood and controls workflows,
accountability monitoring
“Policies don’t work if they’re just documents — connect them directly to AI lifecycle actions.”
AI Governance Policies and Controls
AI Lifecycle Stage
Data Collection Model Training
Anonymization, consent checks Bias testing, peer review, reproducibility
Drift detection, feedback integration Approval workflow, rollback plan
Monitoring Deployment
Competence, Awareness & Training
“Training the Humans Who Train the Machines”
Data Scientists Business Teams Security & Legal Management Dev/ML Engineers
Ethics, bias testing, What AI can/can’t Privacy, Accountability AI fairness,
explainability tools do, limitations compliance, risk and oversight explainability tools
“If your team doesn't understand AI risks, your compliance is only on paper.”
Communication & Transparency
Why Communication Matters
Builds trust with Prevents misuse and Ensures internal alignment
users and regulators misinterpretation of AI systems across teams
External Communication
Internal Communication
Be open about AI usage
AI policy rollouts and updates
Share purpose, limitations, and impacts
Risk findings, mitigation plans
Publish fairness reports
Model explainability for business units
Communicate user rights (opt-out,
Change logs & drift alerts for ops teams
appeal decisions, etc.)
“Silence breeds mistrust. Explain what the AI does, and more importantly, what it doesn’t.”
AI Impact Assessment
Spot Risks Before They Strike
What Is an AI Impact Assessment (AIIA)? Core Components of a Simple AIIA
A structured review of an AI system’s potential
harms to individuals, society, and business. Section What to Include
What it does, why it’s
Purpose of the AI System
used
Users, employees, third
Stakeholders Affected
parties
Bias, discrimination,
Risks Identified
opacity, misuse
Technical +
Risk Mitigation Plan
organizational controls
Manual checks, appeal
Human Oversight
mechanisms
Identify risks (bias, Evaluate impact on Ensure ethical and Regulatory check (DPDP,
Legal & Ethical Review
unfair outcomes, data subjects and regulatory GDPR, etc.)
opacity) stakeholders alignment
“Don't just assess risk. Document it, own it, and act on it — before the system goes live.”
Operational Planning and Controls
Lifecycle Stage
Model Development
Bias testing, reproducibility
logs, code versioning
Data Collection Validation & Testing
Consent checks, data Cross-validation, fairness
minimization, anonymization evaluation, adversarial robustness
Decommissioning Deployment
Data retention policy, Approval workflows, rollback
model archive, impact log mechanism, model cards
finalization
Monitoring
Drift detection, outcome
tracking, alert triggers
“AI governance is not a one-time review — it’s a living control system that runs with your models.”
Monitoring, Measurement & Audit
Keeping AI Accountable – Monitor, Measure & Audit
Why It Matters?
AI systems evolve — Ongoing monitoring ensures your Audits help detect blind spots
and can drift, fail, or models stay fair, accurate, and and prove compliance
misbehave silently aligned with business + ethical goals (internally & externally)
Internal Audits – What to Include
Review of AI risk register &
1
2
3
4
impact assessments
Evaluation of model lifecycle compliance
Evidence of training, decisions, escalations
Gaps or nonconformities with action plans
“Don’t just measure what’s easy — measure what builds trust. Fairness, transparency, and real-world impact.”
What to Monitor & Measure
Category What to Track How to Measure
Accuracy, precision, recall, F1
Model Performance Weekly/monthly dashboards
score
Demographic parity, equal Bias detection tools (e.g.,
Fairness
opportunity AIF360)
Monitor input/output
Drift Data distribution changes
anomalies
Explainability Clarity score, XAI metrics LIME, SHAP, human evals
Incidents Errors, complaints, escalations Ticketing + feedback systems
“Don’t just measure what’s easy — measure what builds trust. Fairness, transparency, and real-world impact.”
Summary & ISO 42001 Readiness Checklist
Your AI Governance Journey!
What You've Learned (Quick Recap)
ISO 42001 sets the standard for AI Management Systems (AIMS)
It’s about people, processes, and principles — not just code
Governance must cover the full AI lifecycle — from design to
decommissioning
Documentation, transparency, and continuous improvement are key
“Don’t just measure what’s easy — measure what builds trust. Fairness, transparency, and real-world impact.”
THANK YOU!!
MoS Team is ready to assist you with the
implementation of ISO 42001
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