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AIAC AI ASSURANCE COUNCIL™

CAI-F · Foundation grade · Governance

Certified AI Governance Foundation — ISO/IEC 42001

The AI management system standard: what ISO/IEC 42001 requires of an organisation, clauses 4–10 and the Annex A controls in concept, and how an AIMS is evidenced.

Reference
CAI-F
Level
Foundation
Examination
2 hours
Delivery
Remote, proctored
Credential
Valid 2 years

§ 1 — Intended candidates

Who this certification is for

The competency standard for the AI management-system approach — ISO/IEC 42001, the certifiable standard for organisational AI governance, and the common baseline beneath the Council’s sector credentials.

Who it is for. Governance, risk, and compliance professionals implementing or assuring an AI management system, and the consultants and auditors who work against ISO/IEC 42001.

Prerequisites
No formal prerequisites. Candidates are expected to have professional experience in a governance, risk, compliance, or management-system function.
Status
Open for registrationOpen for registration · Examinations from October 2026

This is the Foundation grade of the AI Governance — ISO/IEC 42001 family — Practitioner and Fellow follow it.

§ 2 — Examination domains

What the examination covers

The examination is mapped to ISO/IEC 42001. Weightings are indicative until each syllabus issues.

  1. 01

    Context, scope, and the AIMS20%

    Clause 4: establishing what the management system covers and the context it operates in.

  2. 02

    Leadership, policy, and roles15%

    Clause 5: the AI policy, and the roles that answer for the system.

  3. 03

    Planning and risk and impact assessment20%

    Clause 6: AI risk assessment, impact assessment, and the treatment decisions that follow.

  4. 04

    Support and operational controls20%

    Clauses 7 and 8: resources, competence, documented information, and operational control.

  5. 05

    Performance evaluation and improvement10%

    Clauses 9 and 10: monitoring, internal audit, management review, and correction.

  6. 06

    Annex A objectives and controls15%

    The Annex A control objectives and controls, and judging which apply.

Curriculum mapping indicates alignment of learning content with published frameworks. It does not constitute endorsement by, or certification under, any standards organisation or regulator.

§ 3 — Preparation

What preparation is anchored to

Anchored to ISO/IEC 42001, with ISO/IEC 23894 risk guidance referenced — named in text only, with no logo and no implied endorsement. Candidates prepare independently against the published materials.

The Council certifies individuals — it sells no preparation of any kind, and how a candidate prepared is never visible to an assessor. How impartiality is protected.

§ 4 — How to certify

One route: the examination

Register through the candidate portal, verify your identity once, and sit. On a pass, the credential and its public register entry are issued.

The full rules — registration, identity verification, examination conduct, adjustments, retakes — are in the candidate handbook.

Fees and the pass standard are fixed in the scheme rules and confirmed ahead of the October 2026 examination window.

§ 5 — Assessment

How candidates are assessed

Examination centred on a supplied organisational context, requiring the ISO/IEC 42001 requirements that apply and the evidence an AIMS would have to show.

Every script is marked twice — an AI assessor first and provisional, an independent human assessor second and final. The credential carries a unique identifier any employer can check on the public register.

§ 6 — Questions

Questions about this certification

What are the prerequisites?
No formal prerequisites. Candidates are expected to have professional experience in a governance, risk, compliance, or management-system function.
When can I sit the examination?
Registration is open now through the candidate portal; examination sittings run from the October 2026 window and are scheduled at booking.
How is the examination marked?
Every script is marked twice, in a fixed order: an AI assessor first, producing a provisional mark, and an independent human assessor second, whose determination is final on any divergence. No result is issued on automated marking alone, and no adverse decision — a fail, a suspension, a withdrawal — is ever made without a human assessor.
How long is the credential valid?
2 years from the date of issue, recorded on the public register. The term and what follows it are set out in the revalidation policy.

Scheme-wide questions are answered on the FAQ and in the candidate handbook.

§ 7 — Further reading

Background reading

§ 8 — Register

Register for this examination

Create a candidate account and register now; sittings are scheduled from the October 2026 examination window, and fees are confirmed ahead of it. The marking standard is identical however you prepared.

Register — candidate portal