AI roles in ISO 42001 certification explained (owners, RACI, and competence)

ISO 42001 audits test whether AI governance is owned, not orphaned in a policy PDF. Defining AI roles early prevents scramble during certification fieldwork.

Related: 4 lessons from our ISO 42001 audit · Collection

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Key takeaways

• Assign an AIMS owner (program lead) separate from every model team.
• Model/system owners operate controls for specific AI use cases.
• Legal, security, and product must appear in your governance map.
• Document competence (training, experience) for critical roles.

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Core roles

Role	Responsibility
Executive sponsor	Resources, priority, management review
AIMS / compliance lead	Scope, SoA, audit coordination
AI/ML engineering lead	Model lifecycle, monitoring, change control
Data governance	Training data quality, lineage, retention
Risk / security	Threat modeling, access, incidents
Internal auditor	Independent AIMS checks before CB audit

See AI roles explained for agent-specific governance.

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Competence and training

Retain records: role descriptions, training completion, and expert involvement for high-risk AI (e.g., red teaming, bias review).

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SecureSlate

Assign control owners and track AI evidence: Free trial

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Disclaimer (legal note)

Organizational structures vary. Informational only.