The problem isn’t the intention behind ISO 42001. The problem is velocity.
There’s a growing confusion that ISO 27001 is “dead” and ISO 42001 is the new gold standard for AI governance. It sounds convincing until you try to apply ISO‑style auditing to modern AI systems.
The problem isn’t the intention behind ISO 42001.
The problem is velocity.
AI Moves Too Fast for ISO to Matter
A typical ISO 42001 audit takes 8–12 weeks. That’s normal for ISO: evidence, review, remediation, sign‑off.
But AI capability now advances every 3–5 weeks.
By the time your certificate is issued, your AI stack has already gone through multiple model generations. You’re certified for an environment that no longer exists.
Three Months Ago vs Today: A Different Universe
Look at the last 90 days:
Three months ago:
- OpenAI o1‑pro was the top reasoning model
- GPT‑4.1/4.5 were still widely deployed
- Gemini 2.0 was competitive
- Claude 3.5 Sonnet was the “balanced” choice
- Agentic AI was emerging
- Token costs were high
Today:
- OpenAI o3 and o3‑mini have replaced the entire o1 family
- Google Gemini 3.0 Ultra is the new performance leader
- Anthropic Claude 4 surpasses all previous versions
- Meta Llama 4 is frontier‑competitive at a fraction of the cost
- Agentic AI is now the default
- Token prices have collapsed again
This isn’t incremental improvement.
It’s platform turnover every few weeks.
The Certification Illusion
If your audit was based on a non‑reasoning or early‑reasoning model, but you’ve since switched to a modern reasoning model to stay competitive, your certificate now misrepresents your risk profile.
Clients think you’re compliant.
But the underlying system the thing that actually matters has fundamentally changed.
ISO 42001 Can’t Keep Up
ISO standards were built for slow, predictable technology cycles.
AI is volatile, fast‑iterating, provider‑dependent, and capability‑exploding.
Trying to apply ISO methodology to AI is like trying to certify a Formula 1 car using the rules for a bicycle.