A new global standard brings credibility, consistency, and trust to the fast-growing AI audit market.

The global push for responsible and trustworthy AI took a major step forward with the release of ISO/IEC 42006:2025, a new international standard designed specifically for organizations that audit and certify Artificial Intelligence Management Systems (AIMS).

Published by the British Standards Institution (BSI), the standard responds to a growing concern across industries: as AI adoption accelerates, so too has the number of audit providers claiming to offer AI governance certification. Until now, the market has operated with wide variation in audit quality, assessment approaches, and technical understanding of AI risk.

ISO/IEC 42006:2025 aims to solve that.

Why This Matters: Ending the “Wild West” of AI Audits

The new standard sets out clear, rigorous, and globally aligned requirements for bodies conducting AIMS audits, ensuring they have:

• Competent and AI-literate audit teams
• Consistent methodologies aligned with ISO/IEC 42001:2023
• Defined protocols for assessing AI governance, risk, and controls
• Quality assurance procedures that match high-stakes AI risks
• Transparent, repeatable, and defensible certification decisions

This addresses what many experts have called the current “wild-west stage” of AI auditing — where uneven quality can undermine the credibility of certification and leave organizations exposed to compliance, safety, and ethical risks.

With ISO/IEC 42006:2025 now in place, certification bodies will be required to meet a much higher bar.

The result: greater trust in AI certifications, greater consistency across regions, and greater protection for organizations relying on AI for critical business operations.

What It Means for Businesses

For organisations using AI — from predictive analytics to generative AI tools — this is a significant milestone.

ISO/IEC 42006:2025 ensures that when a business seeks certification to ISO/IEC 42001:2023, the audit will be:

• robust
• evidence-based
• technically informed
• and aligned with global best practices

This matters not just for compliance, but for customer trust, stakeholder confidence, and regulatory readiness.

As AI governance becomes central to procurement, partnerships, and risk management, organisations will increasingly ask:

“Who certified your AI governance — and to what standard?”

ISO/IEC 42006 provides the answer.

The Bigger Picture: Trustworthy AI Is Becoming a Global Expectation

As nations move toward harmonised AI governance, ISO/IEC 42006:2025 signals a major evolution:

AI audits are no longer just a technical exercise — they are becoming a cornerstone of global AI trust and assurance.

For businesses preparing for 2026 and beyond, the message is clear: Now is the time to strengthen AI governance, document processes, and prepare for consistent international expectations.

QiQ will continue to monitor developments and guide Australian organisations through this next phase of AI governance maturity.