AI Readiness Assessments Help You Regain control

What Our Clients Say

• What is ISO 42001?

  ISO/IEC 42001 is a certifiable management system standard for AI. In plain terms, it helps you set up an AI Management System (AIMS) so you can govern how AI is selected, used, monitored and improved across your organisation. It is designed to help you demonstrate that you’re managing AI responsibly, not just experimenting with tools without oversight. 

  It’s not “a technical standard for models”. It’s closer in spirit to ISO 27001: you define scope, governance, roles, risk management, lifecycle controls, monitoring, continual improvement and evidence. 

  What it typically helps you put in place:

  • Clear ownership and accountability for AI across teams

  • Risk management for AI-specific risks (eg bias, hallucination, data issues, security, misuse)

  • Lifecycle controls (from design/selection to deployment, monitoring and change management)

  • Evidence you can show to auditors, customers, regulators and your board

• What is an AI Readiness Assessment?

  An AI Readiness Assessment is a structured way to understand how close you are to meeting ISO/IEC 42001 expectations before you invest time (and money) in a full implementation or certification project. It’s essentially a gap assessment plus a prioritised plan. 

  A good readiness assessment will give you:

  • A view of your current AI governance maturity (what exists vs what’s missing)

  • A gap analysis mapped to ISO/IEC 42001 requirements

  • A prioritised remediation plan so you’re not trying to fix everything at once

  • Clarity on scope (what AI use cases, tools and teams should be in your AIMS) 

  Typical assessment areas include leadership and governance, policies, risk management, data and model lifecycle controls, monitoring and evidence.

• Do I need ISO 42001 certification?

  It depends on what regulatory, business or compliance pressure you’re under.

  You may be fine with “aligned” if your primary goal is internal governance, reducing risk and being able to explain your controls credibly. Many organisations start here because it’s faster and still delivers meaningful outcomes. 

  Certification becomes more valuable when:

  • Customers are asking for independent assurance (especially in procurement and regulated supply chains)

  • You want a recognised badge to support trust and market differentiation

  • You expect audit scrutiny and want a formal mechanism to maintain governance over time 

  A practical path many organisations take:

  • Readiness assessment (gap analysis)

  • Implement the AIMS and generate evidence

  • Consider certification once the operating model is stable

• How long does ISO 42001 certification take?

  This is one of the most searched questions and the honest answer is: it varies based on your size, complexity and how mature your governance already is. Multiple current guidance sources frame it as a multi-month effort, commonly ranging from a few months for smaller organisations to closer to a year for larger ones with complex AI use. 

  What tends to drive the timeline:

  • How widespread AI use is (shadow AI increases scoping and clean-up)

  • Whether you already have strong foundations (eg ISO 27001-style governance)

  • The amount of evidence you can produce quickly (risk registers, policies, monitoring, reviews)

  • How many suppliers and AI tools you rely on 

  A readiness assessment is often the quickest way to stop guessing and get a realistic plan and timeline for your environment.

• ISO 42001 vs the EU AI Act: are they the same thing?

  No. ISO/IEC 42001 is a voluntary international standard for an AI management system. The EU AI Act is binding law with specific legal obligations depending on your role (provider, deployer, etc.) and the risk classification of the AI system. 

  They do overlap in important areas like risk management, lifecycle thinking and human oversight but ISO 42001 does not automatically make you compliant with the EU AI Act. There are EU AI Act requirements that sit outside an ISO management-system certification model such as system-level conformity assessment obligations, certain registration requirements and specific post-market obligations for high-risk systems. 

  A sensible approach if you operate in or sell into the EU:

  • Use ISO 42001 to establish repeatable governance and evidence

  • Then map your AI use cases to EU AI Act obligations and address gaps where the law goes further

• What AI tools / technology are in scope for an ISO 42001 readiness assessment?

  Scope is where most organisations trip up because AI adoption is rarely neat. Your scope should cover the AI that creates risk for your organisation, including:

  • Generative AI tools used by staff (even if “only for productivity”)

  • AI embedded in third-party platforms you rely on

  • Internally developed or fine-tuned models

  • Any AI that influences decisions, customers, regulated processes or sensitive data flows 

  A readiness assessment helps you define scope pragmatically by identifying AI use cases, data flows and ownership then aligning them to the management system expectations.

• What evidence will I need for ISO 42001 certification?

  ISO 42001 is evidence-driven. It’s not enough to say you have governance. You need to show it’s operating.

  Common evidence areas include:

  • AI policies, roles and responsibilities, oversight forums and decision records

  • AI risk assessments and treatment plans

  • Supplier and tool evaluations (including security, privacy and governance requirements)

  • Model and data lifecycle controls (where relevant)

  • Monitoring, incident management and continual improvement activities 

  A readiness assessment typically identifies what evidence you already have (even if scattered) and what needs to be created, tightened or operationalised. 

• Is ISO 42001 only for organisations building AI, or also for organisations using tools like ChatGPT and Copilot?

  It’s for both. ISO 42001 is about governing AI use in your organisation, whether you are:

  • Building AI systems

  • Deploying AI systems

  • Buying AI-enabled products

  • Using general-purpose AI tools internally 

  If your staff are using GenAI tools and you have sensitive data, regulated processes, or customer trust on the line, you already have AI governance exposure. A readiness assessment helps you get control of that reality without over-engineering.

• How do I assess my organisation's readiness for ai adoption?

  Assessing AI readiness is less about picking a model and more about proving you can adopt AI safely, repeatably and with governance that will stand up to scrutiny. Most modern frameworks converge on the same core dimensions: strategy, governance, data foundations, people/culture, technology and model management. Microsoft’s AI Readiness Assessment, for example, explicitly assesses readiness across pillars like business strategy, AI governance and security, data foundations, organisation/culture, infrastructure and model management. 

  A practical way to do this in your organisation:

  1) Start with scope and use cases (the part most people skip)

  If you can’t clearly describe where AI is being used (or planned), you can’t govern it.

  • List your current and planned AI use cases (including GenAI tools like copilots, chatbots, summarisation, coding assistants)

  • Identify who owns each use case, what data it touches and whether it impacts customers, regulated processes or material decisions

  • Capture third-party AI usage too (AI embedded inside SaaS platforms often gets missed)

  2) Assess governance and accountability

  Readiness means you have clear responsibility, oversight and decision rights.

  • Define who is accountable for AI risk (not just IT)

  • Establish a governance forum or oversight mechanism

  • Put in place a way to approve, monitor and retire AI use cases (especially higher risk ones)

  3) Test your data foundations (quality, access, lineage)

  Most AI failures are data failures.

  • Data quality and completeness for intended use cases

  • Data governance: access controls, retention, provenance/lineage

  • Restrictions: personal data, sensitive IP, residency/sovereignty requirements

  4) Review security and risk management

  You need AI-specific risk thinking, not generic “we have ISO 27001”.

  • Threat modelling for AI use cases (data leakage, prompt injection, model abuse, supply chain risk)

  • Human oversight and validation controls (particularly for hallucinations and high-impact outputs)

  • Monitoring and incident handling for AI failures, misuse or unexpected behaviour

  5) Evaluate people and operating model

  If it relies on one enthusiastic person, you’re not “ready”, you’re lucky.

  • Skills coverage (product, legal, security, data, engineering)

  • Training and acceptable use guidance for staff

  • Change management and comms so adoption is controlled not chaotic

  6) Produce an evidence-backed roadmap

  A readiness assessment is only useful if it results in prioritised actions.

  • Prioritise gaps based on impact and likelihood

  • Assign owners and realistic timelines

  • Decide what “good” looks like for your organisation (not an over-engineered fantasy)

  If you want your readiness work to align to a certifiable structure, ISO/IEC 42001 is designed around an AI management system approach (similar in concept to ISO 27001 but for AI). That’s why many organisations use a structured ISO 42001-style gap assessment to avoid “hand-wavy” AI governance.

• What are the best AI readiness assessment platforms available?

  There isn’t one universal “best” platform because they solve different problems. In practice, the strongest option depends on whether you want (a) a quick benchmark, (b) a structured organisational maturity assessment, (c) something explicitly aligned to ISO/IEC 42001 readiness, or (d) how much time you’re willing to invest.

  Below are the platforms and toolkits that are currently prominent and actively used in the market, grouped by what they’re best for:

  1) Best for quick organisational benchmarking and next-step guidance

  These are good when you want a fast, structured starting point and a common language for stakeholders.

  • AI Consultancy: The best option is to engage an expert cyber security consultancy like CyPro, they will do it most cost effectively and it’ll involve the least amount of time on your side.

  • Microsoft AI Readiness Assessment: a structured assessment covering pillars such as business strategy, AI governance and security, data foundations, culture and infrastructure. Requires a lot of time your time to gather the information and complete the assessment.

  • Microsoft AI Readiness Wizard: a lighter-weight “get oriented” tool that points you towards the next best area to focus on. 

  Good for:

  • Getting leadership alignment quickly

  • Establishing a baseline without a heavy programme

  • Identifying broad gaps (strategy, governance, data, culture)

  Not great for:

  • Producing audit-grade evidence

  • ISO/IEC 42001-style requirement mapping on its own

  2) Best for structured maturity assessment and roadmap tooling

  These tend to be used by larger organisations that want a maturity model and a programme view.

  • AI Consultancy: Unsurprisingly the best option for maturity assessment is to also engage an expert cyber security consultancy like CyPro. These exercises require specialist expertise which you are unlikely to have in-house.
  • Gartner AI Maturity Model & Roadmap Toolkit: positions AI readiness across areas like strategy, governance, data, operating models and culture, aimed at establishing a baseline and roadmap. 

  3) Best for ISO/IEC 42001 gap assessment and “AIMS readiness”

  If your end goal is ISO 42001 alignment or certification, you’ll usually want tools that explicitly structure around the standard’s requirements.

  • Complyleft ISO/IEC 42001:2023 AIMS Gap Assessment Tool: positioned specifically as a practical gap assessment tool for ISO 42001 AI governance readiness. 

  • ISO 42001 implementation providers often package readiness assessments that map directly to ISO 42001 requirements and outputs needed for audit preparation. 

  4) Best for assessment plus delivery (consulting-led “platform + service”)

  These are often “assessment tooling” wrapped inside a delivery offer.

  • Avanade AI Readiness Assessment Tool / Hub: positioned around identifying actions to improve AI maturity across people, process and platform readiness. 

  • Microsoft marketplace offerings also show packaged “AI readiness assessment” services (these are services more than software platforms, but they’re commonly what buyers actually procure).