ISO 42001 A.6.5: Controlled AI System Deployment
Before releasing any AI system into production, your organization must verify that safety conditions are met, users understand capabilities and limitations, and monitoring is active. A.6.5 ensures AI deployments don't fail—or fail safely—by enforcing structured, pre-release verification across your entire organization.
What this means
This control requires a formal deployment process that confirms three critical elements before any AI system goes live: (1) all preconditions for safe operation are satisfied, (2) operators and end-users have received clear communication about what the system can and cannot do, and (3) monitoring mechanisms are operational to track performance and catch issues in real-time. It's about preventing blind launches and ensuring accountability from day one.
How to comply
- 1.Document a deployment approval checklist that verifies all safety preconditions are met before release authorization
- 2.Create and distribute capability/limitation statements for each AI system to all operators and users before deployment
- 3.Establish monitoring dashboards and alert mechanisms active prior to system go-live
- 4.Maintain deployment decision logs showing who approved the release and on what date
- 5.Conduct pre-deployment readiness reviews with cross-functional teams (security, ops, compliance, users)
- 6.Archive evidence of user training completion and acknowledgment of system limitations
Evidence auditors look for
- Deployment checklist template with sign-off from security, operations, and compliance teams
- System capability/limitation documentation distributed to user groups with read receipts
- Monitoring configuration documentation showing dashboards and alert thresholds active at deployment time
- Deployment approval meeting minutes or decision logs with attendees and approval date
- User training records and signed acknowledgments of system capability statements
- Pre-deployment readiness assessment reports
Frequently asked questions
When will FAQs be available?
The FAQ for this control is currently being prepared.
GRCWatch automates deployment checklists, tracks user acknowledgments of capability statements, and integrates monitoring status checks into a single pre-release gate—so you never deploy an untested AI system again.
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