Clause 7, Support
The unglamorous clause that decides whether the policy is real. Every requirement area of Clause 7, verified against the published structure of ISO/IEC 42001:2023 on August 25, 2026.
Clause 7 covers the inputs a management system consumes: people, skills, awareness, communication and documents. A management system is paperwork until this clause funds it.
The AI-specific weight sits on competence. The standard expects the people building, deploying and overseeing AI to be demonstrably competent for those roles, which is exactly the gap a structured training program exists to close.
The requirement areas
- 7.1 Resources
Determine and provide what the management system needs to run and improve: budget, tooling, time and people.
- 7.2 Competence
Define the competence each AI-touching role needs, make sure people have it (by training, hiring or otherwise), and keep the evidence.
- 7.3 Awareness
People doing work under the system know the AI policy, their contribution to it, and the consequences of not conforming.
- 7.4 Communication
Decide what the organization communicates about its AI, internally and externally: what, when, to whom and how.
- 7.5 Documented information
Create, control and maintain the documents and records the system needs, so the evidence exists when an auditor asks.
Clause 7 is a discipline before it is a document
Reading the clause tells you what an auditor will look for. The AI Governance program drills the work itself, and the credential shows an employer you did it under assessment.
Clause and subclause identifiers follow ISO/IEC 42001:2023 exactly; the wording is our plain-English paraphrase, and the standard's full text is sold by ISO at iso.org/standard/81230.html. Not affiliated with or endorsed by ISO or the IEC. Last verified: August 25, 2026.