Page 25 - The Annual AI Governance Report 2025 Steering the Future of AI

The Annual AI Governance Report 2025: Steering the Future of AI

Theme 4: AI Standards and Best Practices

4.1 Landscape of AI Standard Setting Initiatives

Institutional Landscape and Global Cooperation on AI Standards: The global architecture
for AI standard-setting includes the international Standards Development Organizations ITU
(International Telecommunication Union), ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), and the practitioner-driven IEEE (Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). Together, their combined portfolios now span telecom-
centric specifications, horizontal management-system norms and socio-technical practice
guides, forming an emerging layered stack of standards.

ITU commands the broadest constituency, with a membership including 194 Member States
and more than 1’000 companies, universities, research institutes, and international and regional
organizations , giving it both intergovernmental relevance and sector-specific technical depth.
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ISO has 48 participating members in its AI committee (JTC 1/SC 42).
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The AI and multimedia authenticity standards (AMAS) collaboration, under the World Standards
Cooperation (the partnership of ITU, ISO and IEC), announced at the AI for Good Summit
2024, is exploring how standards can serve as practical tools to promote transparency and
accountability, uphold human rights, and guide responsible innovation in AI systems.

AMAS has delivered a mapping of the standardization landscape in the area of AI and
multimedia authenticity, including the identification of gaps where standards are needed. It has
also developed related guidance for policymakers and regulators. These first two deliverables,
being published in conjunction with the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, will be followed by
future iterations.

ITU, ISO and IEC organized the first edition of an International AI Standards Summit alongside the
World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24) in New Delhi in October 2024
and will convene the second International AI Standards Summit in Seoul from 2 to 3 December
2025. The new summit series aims to help realize the objectives of the UN Global Digital
Compact.
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At the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva 2025, a new AI Standards Exchange Database was
launched, which includes standards from ITU, ISO, IEC, IEEE and IETF (Internet Engineering Task
Force), with other international and regional standards development organizations considering
joining.

Sector-Specific and Regional Standardization Initiatives: Regional initiatives are moving from
principle to implementation. In Europe, CEN-CENELEC Joint Technical Committee 21 on
Artificial Intelligence (JTC 21)—established in 2021 and bringing together 300-plus experts
from over 20 countries—is crafting sector-specific standards for healthcare, mobility and other
high-risk domains. The presumption-of-conformity routes under the EU AI Act are established
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by the standards they have set out, as stated in Commission Decision C(2023)3215. The
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68 ITU/UN. (2024, November 27). Our members - ITU.
69 ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 - Artificial intelligence. (2023, September 11). ISO.
70 ITU. (2025, April 2). World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24). WTSA-24.
71 Skov, K. (2025, January 29). About the Joint Technical Committee | CEN-CENELEC JTC 21 |. European AI
Standardization | CEN-CENELEC JTC 21.
72 Register of Commission Documents. (2023)

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