Updates to ISO Standards

2026 is shaping up to be a significant year for ISO management system standards with quality, environmental and AI governance all taking centre stage.

ISO 9001: 2026 will be released on 16 September and wil replace ISO 9001:2015. We understand, the revisions to the new version of the standard include greater emphasis on organisational resilience, stronger leadership and quality culture expectations, the integration of climate change considerations, an enhanced focus on risk and opportunity management and increased attention to ethics and governance.

This will most likely affect your management system over the next few years and we recommend that any organisations certified to ISO 9001:2015 should be monitoring their transitions to the new version of the standard closely.

ISO 14001:2026 has been published and the International Standard Organisation describes it as an evolution rather than a complete rewrite.

It’s key themes include climate change, biodiversity, resource efficiency, stronger leadership and governance expectations and improvement integration with other ISO management systems.

This matters because environmental performance is increasingly being scrutinised by regulators, customers, investors and supply chains. The updated standard aims to help organisations demonstrate measurable environmental outcomes rather than simply having environmental policies in place.

ISO 42001:2023 is rapidly becoming similar to where ISO 27001 was several years ago, initially a differentiator but now increasingly an expectation. Organisations are starting to ask suppliers to demonstrate AI governance through ISO 42001 certification. Recent industry reporting describes ISO 42001 as becoming the new baseline for AI vendor trust where customers want evidence of AI accountability, human oversight, transparency and independent verification of AI governance controls.

Recent industry articles point to large technology providers bringing AI services into ISO 42001 certification scopes. This is important because it demonstrates that major AI providers are treating ISO 42001 as a serious governance framework rather than a niche standard.

Do get in touch if you need any assistance with these, or other standards.