# ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.3.2 — AI roles and responsibilities

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-3-2-ai-roles-and-responsibilities
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 42001:2023 (AI Management System) Annex A Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023) › Organizational controls
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 42001:2023**·Annex A `A.3.2`·high·Component: **Organizational controls**

## What this control requires

> Roles, responsibilities, and accountability for AI governance and operations shall be defined, assigned, and maintained.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 42001:2023, Annex A A.3.2

### In plain English

Roles, responsibilities, and accountability for AI governance and operations shall be defined, assigned, and maintained. In practice, this means you can prove you define governance-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

ISO 42001 is the first audited evidence regulators, customers and investors can ask for that you are managing AI risk. Each Annex A control is a check-box in that audit; it is also the management system enterprises are starting to require from AI vendors before an MSA can be signed.

This control is rated **high**. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

## What an auditor looks for

An ISO 42001 auditor verifies you have an AI policy, a risk-based system of impact assessments for each AI system, lifecycle controls from data acquisition through retirement, and third-party-AI controls that pierce the vendor's wrapper to underlying model behaviour.

Within **Organizational controls**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.3.2) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

1.  Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2.  Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3.  Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4.  Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

### Operational checklist

-   **Define.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Govern.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** governance.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Policy Document.** A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
-   **Identity Scan.** IAM / IdP exports — Entra ID, Okta, IAM Identity Center, Workspace directory — showing accounts, roles, MFA state and last sign-in.

Approved AI governance policies define AI roles, responsibilities, and accountability. Identity and access evidence should verify assigned role ownership, authorization boundaries, and periodic review of privileged responsibilities. Focus: AI roles and responsibilities.

## How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.16** — Identity management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-16-identity-management)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.8** — Identity management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-8-identity-management)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 6.1** — Establish an Access Granting Process](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/6-1-establish-an-access-granting-process)
-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC1.5** — Accountability for Internal Control Responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc1-5-accountability-for-internal-control-responsibilities)
-   [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.4** — Information in Shared System Resources](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-13-4-information-in-shared-system-resources)

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 42001:2023

-   [**Annex A A.4.6** — Human resources](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-4-6-human-resources)
-   [**Annex A A.2.3** — Alignment with other organizational policies](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-2-3-alignment-with-other-organizational-policies)
-   [**Annex A A.9.2** — Processes for responsible use of AI systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-9-2-processes-for-responsible-use-of-ai-systems)
-   [**Annex A A.9.3** — Objectives for responsible use of AI systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-9-3-objectives-for-responsible-use-of-ai-systems)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 — ISO/IEC 42001:2023](https://www.iso.org/standard/81230.html)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.3.2`

Topics: governance riskidentity accessaccess controlidentity managementaccess review