United States · ISO/IEC 42001 · Microsoft 365 and Azure
If your organization runs on Microsoft 365, most of what ISO 42001 asks about AI (what you use, what data it touches, who controls it, and what it did) is already recorded in Defender, Purview and Entra. The work is turning that into a management system an auditor can test.
AI system inventory
Defender for Cloud Apps discovers generative AI apps in use across the organization. Entra ID shows which AI apps have been granted access to mail, files or other data. Microsoft 365 Copilot is licensed and governed in the admin center.
Checkpoint checks
Data for AI systems
Copilot works within each user’s existing permissions, so oversharing in SharePoint and OneDrive becomes AI exposure. Purview sensitivity labels and data loss prevention set what content can be used and where it can go.
Checkpoint checks
AI system impact assessment
Impact assessments are records, not settings: who is affected, what could go wrong, what oversight is in place. They live in SharePoint in your own tenant, linked to the AI system they describe.
Checkpoint checks
Roles, responsibilities and access
Entra ID roles and Privileged Identity Management keep admin rights over Copilot, Azure AI resources and connected apps time-limited and reviewed, with MFA on every account.
Checkpoint checks
Monitoring and logging
Microsoft Purview Audit records user interactions with Microsoft 365 Copilot alongside the rest of your audit log, so monitoring evidence comes from the same place auditors already sample.
Checkpoint checks
Third-party and supplier AI
Defender for Cloud Apps can block or warn on unapproved AI sites, and session controls govern how approved cloud apps are used. Supplier AI is assessed in the same register as your own.
Checkpoint checks
Top management sets the AI policy and the objectives it is measured against. Templates help; the decisions are yours.
Tools show what AI is in use and what it can reach. Whether that is acceptable for the people affected is a judgment the management system records.
An impartial internal audit and a management review, both required before certification, test that the system works as written.
Yes. ISO/IEC 42001 is a management system standard, certified by an accredited certification body in the same way as ISO 27001. It has clauses 4 to 10 plus 38 Annex A controls.
No. Microsoft’s certifications cover how Microsoft runs its services. ISO 42001 certifies how your organization governs the AI it builds, buys and uses, which only you can evidence.
No, but it helps. ISO 42001 has the same management system structure, so an existing ISMS gives you the risk process, internal audit and management review to build on.
The NIST AI Risk Management Framework is voluntary guidance with no certificate. ISO 42001 is certifiable and maps closely to it, so one ISO 42001 program can answer questions framed in NIST AI RMF terms too.
We implement ISO 42001 inside your own Microsoft 365, on Checkpoint, our compliance software, with the AI register, impact assessments and evidence kept in your tenant. A 30-minute call tells you how much of it you already have.
Compliance365 in the US · ISO 42001 service · ISO 42001 vs NIST AI RMF vs the EU AI Act
General guidance, not legal advice. Microsoft product names as of November 2026; features vary by license. Last reviewed 1 November 2026.
