L5 • Advanced
Building Standards Bodies: Participating in AI Standards


Building Standards Bodies: Participating in AI Standards

Table of Contents
  1. The AI Standards Landscape 2025
  2. Participating as Individual Expert
  3. Corporate Standards Participation Strategy
  4. Funding and Governance
  5. The AI Standards Wars
  6. Creating an Industry Consortium

The AI Standards Landscape 2025

The AI Standards Landscape 2025 is a critical component of evaluation design. This section explores the key principles, common pitfalls, and best practices for implementing the ai standards landscape 2025.

Core Principles

The foundation of the ai standards landscape 2025 rests on several core principles that have been validated across organizations. First, clarity of purpose ensures that every evaluation decision serves a strategic goal. Second, consistency in methodology enables meaningful comparisons over time. Third, transparency in processes builds stakeholder trust.

When implementing the ai standards landscape 2025, organizations often discover that investing time upfront in design saves months later. A poorly designed eval creates confusion, consumes resources without producing actionable insights, and erodes stakeholder confidence.

Practical Implementation

Begin with a clear definition of success. What will this evaluation accomplish? Who will use the results? What decisions will be informed by the findings?

Next, establish baselines and standards. What constitutes good, acceptable, and poor performance? How will you measure progress? These benchmarks should be documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Implementation requires careful planning. Timeline: How long will the evaluation take? Resources: Who will conduct it? Budget: What will it cost? Success metrics: How will you know you succeeded?

Common Challenges and Solutions

Organizations implementing the ai standards landscape 2025 frequently encounter predictable challenges. Stakeholder disagreement about standards is common; resolve this through calibration sessions where stakeholders align on what "good" looks like. Resource constraints often emerge; address this by prioritizing the most critical evaluations. Quality drift occurs in long-running studies; combat this with regular re-calibration and consistency checks.

Advanced Techniques

Once you've mastered the ai standards landscape 2025 basics, several advanced techniques improve results. Bayesian approaches incorporate prior knowledge and uncertainty. Multi-dimensional analysis breaks down complex judgments into component parts. Continuous evaluation adapts to changing conditions rather than using fixed criteria.

Integration with Organizational Workflow

the ai standards landscape 2025 should integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Build eval into the product development cycle. Make results easily accessible to decision-makers. Create feedback loops where eval findings drive product improvements. Document lessons learned for future evals.

Scaling The AI Standards Landscape 2025

As organizations mature in evaluation, they scale from initial manual implementations to systematic, efficient processes. This scaling involves: (1) Building reusable infrastructure, (2) creating templates and playbooks, (3) training teams on best practices, (4) establishing standards that persist across projects.

Participating as Individual Expert

Participating as Individual Expert is a critical component of evaluation design. This section explores the key principles, common pitfalls, and best practices for implementing participating as individual expert.

Core Principles

The foundation of participating as individual expert rests on several core principles that have been validated across organizations. First, clarity of purpose ensures that every evaluation decision serves a strategic goal. Second, consistency in methodology enables meaningful comparisons over time. Third, transparency in processes builds stakeholder trust.

When implementing participating as individual expert, organizations often discover that investing time upfront in design saves months later. A poorly designed eval creates confusion, consumes resources without producing actionable insights, and erodes stakeholder confidence.

Practical Implementation

Begin with a clear definition of success. What will this evaluation accomplish? Who will use the results? What decisions will be informed by the findings?

Next, establish baselines and standards. What constitutes good, acceptable, and poor performance? How will you measure progress? These benchmarks should be documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Implementation requires careful planning. Timeline: How long will the evaluation take? Resources: Who will conduct it? Budget: What will it cost? Success metrics: How will you know you succeeded?

Common Challenges and Solutions

Organizations implementing participating as individual expert frequently encounter predictable challenges. Stakeholder disagreement about standards is common; resolve this through calibration sessions where stakeholders align on what "good" looks like. Resource constraints often emerge; address this by prioritizing the most critical evaluations. Quality drift occurs in long-running studies; combat this with regular re-calibration and consistency checks.

Advanced Techniques

Once you've mastered participating as individual expert basics, several advanced techniques improve results. Bayesian approaches incorporate prior knowledge and uncertainty. Multi-dimensional analysis breaks down complex judgments into component parts. Continuous evaluation adapts to changing conditions rather than using fixed criteria.

Integration with Organizational Workflow

participating as individual expert should integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Build eval into the product development cycle. Make results easily accessible to decision-makers. Create feedback loops where eval findings drive product improvements. Document lessons learned for future evals.

Scaling Participating as Individual Expert

As organizations mature in evaluation, they scale from initial manual implementations to systematic, efficient processes. This scaling involves: (1) Building reusable infrastructure, (2) creating templates and playbooks, (3) training teams on best practices, (4) establishing standards that persist across projects.

Corporate Standards Participation Strategy

Corporate Standards Participation Strategy is a critical component of evaluation design. This section explores the key principles, common pitfalls, and best practices for implementing corporate standards participation strategy.

Core Principles

The foundation of corporate standards participation strategy rests on several core principles that have been validated across organizations. First, clarity of purpose ensures that every evaluation decision serves a strategic goal. Second, consistency in methodology enables meaningful comparisons over time. Third, transparency in processes builds stakeholder trust.

When implementing corporate standards participation strategy, organizations often discover that investing time upfront in design saves months later. A poorly designed eval creates confusion, consumes resources without producing actionable insights, and erodes stakeholder confidence.

Practical Implementation

Begin with a clear definition of success. What will this evaluation accomplish? Who will use the results? What decisions will be informed by the findings?

Next, establish baselines and standards. What constitutes good, acceptable, and poor performance? How will you measure progress? These benchmarks should be documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Implementation requires careful planning. Timeline: How long will the evaluation take? Resources: Who will conduct it? Budget: What will it cost? Success metrics: How will you know you succeeded?

Common Challenges and Solutions

Organizations implementing corporate standards participation strategy frequently encounter predictable challenges. Stakeholder disagreement about standards is common; resolve this through calibration sessions where stakeholders align on what "good" looks like. Resource constraints often emerge; address this by prioritizing the most critical evaluations. Quality drift occurs in long-running studies; combat this with regular re-calibration and consistency checks.

Advanced Techniques

Once you've mastered corporate standards participation strategy basics, several advanced techniques improve results. Bayesian approaches incorporate prior knowledge and uncertainty. Multi-dimensional analysis breaks down complex judgments into component parts. Continuous evaluation adapts to changing conditions rather than using fixed criteria.

Integration with Organizational Workflow

corporate standards participation strategy should integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Build eval into the product development cycle. Make results easily accessible to decision-makers. Create feedback loops where eval findings drive product improvements. Document lessons learned for future evals.

Scaling Corporate Standards Participation Strategy

As organizations mature in evaluation, they scale from initial manual implementations to systematic, efficient processes. This scaling involves: (1) Building reusable infrastructure, (2) creating templates and playbooks, (3) training teams on best practices, (4) establishing standards that persist across projects.

Funding and Governance

Funding and Governance is a critical component of evaluation design. This section explores the key principles, common pitfalls, and best practices for implementing funding and governance.

Core Principles

The foundation of funding and governance rests on several core principles that have been validated across organizations. First, clarity of purpose ensures that every evaluation decision serves a strategic goal. Second, consistency in methodology enables meaningful comparisons over time. Third, transparency in processes builds stakeholder trust.

When implementing funding and governance, organizations often discover that investing time upfront in design saves months later. A poorly designed eval creates confusion, consumes resources without producing actionable insights, and erodes stakeholder confidence.

Practical Implementation

Begin with a clear definition of success. What will this evaluation accomplish? Who will use the results? What decisions will be informed by the findings?

Next, establish baselines and standards. What constitutes good, acceptable, and poor performance? How will you measure progress? These benchmarks should be documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Implementation requires careful planning. Timeline: How long will the evaluation take? Resources: Who will conduct it? Budget: What will it cost? Success metrics: How will you know you succeeded?

Common Challenges and Solutions

Organizations implementing funding and governance frequently encounter predictable challenges. Stakeholder disagreement about standards is common; resolve this through calibration sessions where stakeholders align on what "good" looks like. Resource constraints often emerge; address this by prioritizing the most critical evaluations. Quality drift occurs in long-running studies; combat this with regular re-calibration and consistency checks.

Advanced Techniques

Once you've mastered funding and governance basics, several advanced techniques improve results. Bayesian approaches incorporate prior knowledge and uncertainty. Multi-dimensional analysis breaks down complex judgments into component parts. Continuous evaluation adapts to changing conditions rather than using fixed criteria.

Integration with Organizational Workflow

funding and governance should integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Build eval into the product development cycle. Make results easily accessible to decision-makers. Create feedback loops where eval findings drive product improvements. Document lessons learned for future evals.

Scaling Funding and Governance

As organizations mature in evaluation, they scale from initial manual implementations to systematic, efficient processes. This scaling involves: (1) Building reusable infrastructure, (2) creating templates and playbooks, (3) training teams on best practices, (4) establishing standards that persist across projects.

The AI Standards Wars

The AI Standards Wars is a critical component of evaluation design. This section explores the key principles, common pitfalls, and best practices for implementing the ai standards wars.

Core Principles

The foundation of the ai standards wars rests on several core principles that have been validated across organizations. First, clarity of purpose ensures that every evaluation decision serves a strategic goal. Second, consistency in methodology enables meaningful comparisons over time. Third, transparency in processes builds stakeholder trust.

When implementing the ai standards wars, organizations often discover that investing time upfront in design saves months later. A poorly designed eval creates confusion, consumes resources without producing actionable insights, and erodes stakeholder confidence.

Practical Implementation

Begin with a clear definition of success. What will this evaluation accomplish? Who will use the results? What decisions will be informed by the findings?

Next, establish baselines and standards. What constitutes good, acceptable, and poor performance? How will you measure progress? These benchmarks should be documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Implementation requires careful planning. Timeline: How long will the evaluation take? Resources: Who will conduct it? Budget: What will it cost? Success metrics: How will you know you succeeded?

Common Challenges and Solutions

Organizations implementing the ai standards wars frequently encounter predictable challenges. Stakeholder disagreement about standards is common; resolve this through calibration sessions where stakeholders align on what "good" looks like. Resource constraints often emerge; address this by prioritizing the most critical evaluations. Quality drift occurs in long-running studies; combat this with regular re-calibration and consistency checks.

Advanced Techniques

Once you've mastered the ai standards wars basics, several advanced techniques improve results. Bayesian approaches incorporate prior knowledge and uncertainty. Multi-dimensional analysis breaks down complex judgments into component parts. Continuous evaluation adapts to changing conditions rather than using fixed criteria.

Integration with Organizational Workflow

the ai standards wars should integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Build eval into the product development cycle. Make results easily accessible to decision-makers. Create feedback loops where eval findings drive product improvements. Document lessons learned for future evals.

Scaling The AI Standards Wars

As organizations mature in evaluation, they scale from initial manual implementations to systematic, efficient processes. This scaling involves: (1) Building reusable infrastructure, (2) creating templates and playbooks, (3) training teams on best practices, (4) establishing standards that persist across projects.

Creating an Industry Consortium

Creating an Industry Consortium is a critical component of evaluation design. This section explores the key principles, common pitfalls, and best practices for implementing creating an industry consortium.

Core Principles

The foundation of creating an industry consortium rests on several core principles that have been validated across organizations. First, clarity of purpose ensures that every evaluation decision serves a strategic goal. Second, consistency in methodology enables meaningful comparisons over time. Third, transparency in processes builds stakeholder trust.

When implementing creating an industry consortium, organizations often discover that investing time upfront in design saves months later. A poorly designed eval creates confusion, consumes resources without producing actionable insights, and erodes stakeholder confidence.

Practical Implementation

Begin with a clear definition of success. What will this evaluation accomplish? Who will use the results? What decisions will be informed by the findings?

Next, establish baselines and standards. What constitutes good, acceptable, and poor performance? How will you measure progress? These benchmarks should be documented and communicated to all stakeholders.

Implementation requires careful planning. Timeline: How long will the evaluation take? Resources: Who will conduct it? Budget: What will it cost? Success metrics: How will you know you succeeded?

Common Challenges and Solutions

Organizations implementing creating an industry consortium frequently encounter predictable challenges. Stakeholder disagreement about standards is common; resolve this through calibration sessions where stakeholders align on what "good" looks like. Resource constraints often emerge; address this by prioritizing the most critical evaluations. Quality drift occurs in long-running studies; combat this with regular re-calibration and consistency checks.

Advanced Techniques

Once you've mastered creating an industry consortium basics, several advanced techniques improve results. Bayesian approaches incorporate prior knowledge and uncertainty. Multi-dimensional analysis breaks down complex judgments into component parts. Continuous evaluation adapts to changing conditions rather than using fixed criteria.

Integration with Organizational Workflow

creating an industry consortium should integrate seamlessly with existing processes. Build eval into the product development cycle. Make results easily accessible to decision-makers. Create feedback loops where eval findings drive product improvements. Document lessons learned for future evals.

Scaling Creating an Industry Consortium

As organizations mature in evaluation, they scale from initial manual implementations to systematic, efficient processes. This scaling involves: (1) Building reusable infrastructure, (2) creating templates and playbooks, (3) training teams on best practices, (4) establishing standards that persist across projects.

The ISO/IEC Standards Landscape

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) jointly govern standards in information technology. TC 42 is the technical committee for AI. Within TC 42, there are subcommittees for different areas. As of 2025, there are standards in development for: AI terminology and concepts (ISO/IEC 22989), management of AI risks (ISO/IEC 42001), robustness and adversarial examples, bias and fairness. Participation means: understanding what standards are being developed, contributing your expertise, ensuring standards are practical and achievable.

NIST AI Risk Management Framework

NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) created the AI RMF (Risk Management Framework) in 2023. It's non-binding guidance but highly influential. Four pillars: govern (how organizations structure AI oversight), map (understand risks in your system), measure (assess risks), manage (mitigate risks). The framework includes an eval component: you need to evaluate your system to understand risks. Organizations often refer to NIST RMF when defending their eval practices to regulators.

Corporate Standards Participation Strategy

If you work at a large company, your employer might have a standards participation strategy. Ask: (1) Which standards bodies does the company participate in? (2) What are we trying to achieve? Are we protecting our market? Creating new requirements that competitors can't meet? Shaping favorable rules? (3) Who represents us? Usually a senior engineer or executive. (4) How can I get involved? Usually through internal nomination. Participating in standards bodies is valuable professional development and networking opportunity.

Creating Industry Consortiums

When formal standards move too slowly, companies sometimes create informal consortiums. Examples: Partnership on AI (industry + academics + nonprofits working on AI governance), MLCommons (benchmark and eval consortium). Creating a consortium requires: shared problem (all participants care about it), shared commitment (members will invest time), clear governance (how decisions are made), and IP clarity (how shared work is licensed). If you're thinking about starting a consortium, talk to others in the space first. Building buy-in is more important than creating the infrastructure.

Key Takeaways

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How to Get Involved in Standards Bodies

If you want to participate: (1) Identify a standards body working on relevant topic. (2) Reach out to them—most bodies welcome participation. (3) Attend meetings (remote participation usually available). (4) Understand the landscape: what standards exist, what are in development? (5) Offer your expertise: "I have experience with fairness testing in production systems—I can help draft a fairness standard." (6) Be patient—standards move slowly. A standard might take 2-3 years to develop and publish. (7) Build relationships with other participants. Standards work is relationship-based; most decisions happen in hallway conversations, not in formal meetings.

Contributing Your Eval Practices to Open Standards

If your organization has developed good eval practices, consider contributing them to standards bodies as case studies or reference implementations. "Here's how we evaluate fairness in production" could become part of an ISO standard. This benefits the industry and establishes your organization as a thoughtful contributor to responsible AI development.

Deep Dive: ISO/IEC 42001 - AI Risk Management

ISO/IEC 42001 is the standard for risk management systems for AI products and services. Key areas: (1) Risk identification (what could go wrong?), (2) risk analysis (how likely? how bad?), (3) risk treatment (what do we do about it?), (4) monitoring (is the treatment working?), (5) documentation (proving you did all this). The standard includes guidance on using evals to identify and mitigate risks. Understanding this standard helps you design eval programs that meet regulatory requirements. Many organizations use ISO 42001 as a framework for their eval strategy.

Navigating Standards Meetings and Politics

Standards development involves politics. Different companies have different interests. A large model vendor might want standards that favor large models. A small company might want standards that are inclusive. Regulators want strong safety requirements. How to navigate: (1) Understand everyone's interests. (2) Look for win-wins (standards that benefit everyone). (3) Build coalitions (partner with organizations that share your values). (4) Compromise where possible, hold firm where it matters. (5) Document your positions in writing. Verbal agreement in meetings gets lost; written positions in standards committees create a record.

Influencing Standards to Help Your Organization

If you're at a large organization participating in standards: (1) Identify standards that affect you. (2) Understand what you want (protect your competitive advantage? Set up requirements that new entrants can't meet? Fair standards that raise the bar for everyone?). (3) Participate actively. (4) When standards are finalized, be prepared to implement them (compliance, not just participation). (5) Use standards in your marketing and sales ("certified to ISO 42001" is a competitive advantage).

Standards for Different Organizational Sizes

Large companies (FAANG): Often participate in ISO and IEEE standards bodies. The cost of standards participation is justified by the risk—regulations might affect your business. They influence standards to be favorable to their situation. Medium companies: Might participate in industry-specific standards (healthcare AI standards, financial AI standards). They're affected by regulations but less able to influence global standards. Small companies: Usually don't participate directly but need to follow standards their customers require. They benefit from free standards (NIST AI RMF) more than proprietary ones.

Contributing Your Organization's Best Practices

If you've developed good eval practices, consider publicizing them. (1) Blog posts about your approach. (2) Talk at conferences (AI conferences, eval-focused conferences). (3) Open source tools and methodologies. (4) Partner with standards bodies by sharing case studies. (5) Publish research papers. This positions your organization as a thoughtful leader in AI evaluation. It helps recruiting (top talent wants to work for leaders). It shapes the industry (your practices influence what becomes standard). It helps customers (they trust organizations known for responsible AI).

Practical Guide: Getting Involved in Standards

Step-by-Step: Joining an ISO Working Group

Interested in ISO? (1) Identify relevant technical committee. SC 42 for AI is the main one. (2) Contact national standards body in your country (ANSI in US, BSI in UK, etc.). (3) Express interest in participating. (4) They may invite you to national mirror committee. (5) If active, you might be selected for ISO working group. (6) Attend meetings (in-person or virtual). (7) Contribute to drafts. (8) Vote on final standards. It takes 2-3 years from proposal to published standard. It's slow but important work.

Contributing Without Formal Participation

Don't have time or budget to formally participate? Still contribute: (1) Respond to public comment periods. When standards bodies release drafts for comment, comment. Your input shapes the standard. (2) Share your expertise. If a working group is developing eval standards, reach out. "I've done large-scale human evaluation. I can share lessons learned." (3) Publish case studies. "Here's how we implemented fairness testing at scale." This influences standards informally. (4) Speak at conferences. Standards participants read papers and listen to talks. Your ideas might influence them. (5) Open source tools that exemplify your approach. Standards emerge from practice. If your tools become standard practice, your approach influences the standard.

Influencing Standards Direction

If you're in a standards body, how to influence: (1) Do the work. Volunteer to draft sections. The person who writes the draft shapes the standard. (2) Build coalitions. If 3 of you agree on something, you're more likely to convince the group than if you're alone. (3) Propose compromises. Perfect is enemy of done. A 90% good standard that passes is better than a perfect standard that never passes. (4) Use data. Standards based on evidence are stronger than opinions. (5) Be patient. Changes take time. But small consistent inputs add up.

Using Standards to Protect Your Organization

Why participate in standards? (1) Shape the standard to be favorable to your organization. (2) Get early access to emerging requirements. If a regulatory standard is developing, knowing it early lets you prepare. (3) Demonstrate commitment to responsible AI. Being an active participant in standards bodies is good for brand and hiring. (4) Influence competitors. If you shape a standard, competitors have to comply. (5) Reduce uncertainty. Standards reduce the cost of uncertainty—you know what's expected instead of guessing. Mature organizations use standards participation as a strategic tool.

Continuing Your Learning Journey

This guide covers the fundamentals and practical applications of evaluation methodology. As you progress in your evaluation career, you'll encounter increasingly complex challenges. Continue learning by: (1) Reading research papers on evaluation and measurement. (2) Attending conferences dedicated to responsible AI and evaluation. (3) Engaging with the broader evaluation community through forums and social media. (4) Experimenting with new evaluation techniques on your own projects. (5) Mentoring others on evaluation best practices. (6) Contributing to open source evaluation tools and frameworks. (7) Publishing your own findings and experiences. The field of AI evaluation is rapidly evolving, and your continued growth and contribution matters.

Key Principles to Remember

As you move forward, keep these key principles in mind: (1) Rigor matters. Thorough evaluation prevents costly failures. (2) Transparency is strength. Honest communication about limitations builds trust. (3) People matter. Human judgment is irreplaceable for many evaluation decisions. (4) Context shapes everything. The same metric means different things in different situations. (5) Evaluation is never finished. Systems change, requirements evolve, you must keep evaluating. (6) Communication is the bottleneck. Perfect eval findings that nobody understands have zero impact. (7) Iterate constantly. Your eval process should improve over time based on what you learn. These principles apply whether you're evaluating a small chatbot or a large enterprise AI system.

Closing Thoughts

Additional resources and extended guidance for deeper mastery of evaluation methodology can be found through continued engagement with the evaluation community. Industry leaders, academic researchers, and practitioners contribute regularly to advancing the field. The evaluation discipline is still young; practices evolve rapidly as organizations scale AI systems and learn from experience. Your contribution to this field matters. Whether through publishing findings, open-sourcing tools, participating in standards bodies, or simply doing rigorous evaluation work in your organization, you're part of the global effort to build trustworthy AI systems. The companies and engineers that get evaluation right will have durable competitive advantages in the AI era. Quality is not a nice-to-have; it's foundational to sustainable AI deployment. Thank you for taking evaluation seriously. The world benefits when AI systems are built with rigor, tested thoroughly, and deployed responsibly. Your commitment to these principles matters more than you might realize.