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AI governance glossary

AI impact assessment

What is an AI impact assessment?

An AI impact assessment is a structured evaluation, before deployment and whenever things change, of how an AI system and its foreseeable uses may affect individuals, groups and society, recording the impacts found and the measures taken to address them.

Why it matters

  • It is a required step in ISO/IEC 42001 and, in specific forms, in law: the FRIA, the DPIA and public-sector algorithmic impact assessments.
  • It surfaces harms a technical risk assessment misses: effects on rights, access to services and particular groups.
  • Its record is the evidence a regulator, auditor or court asks for when a decision is challenged.

In detail

ISO/IEC 42005:2025 gives guidance on carrying out AI system impact assessments and on fitting them into risk management and an AI management system; ISO/IEC 42001 requires one. Law sets specific versions: the EU AI Act's fundamental rights impact assessment for certain deployers of high-risk systems, data protection impact assessments under the GDPR, and algorithmic impact assessments in public-sector rules such as Canada's Directive on Automated Decision-Making.

Source: ISO/IEC 42005:2025, AI system impact assessment. A plain-language explanation for orientation, not the legal text; follow the source for the binding wording.

AI impact assessment template →AI impact assessment control →

Laws and policies on record that use it

Duties that mention it

  • Fundamental rights impact assessment (FRIA)An assessment, before first use, of how a high-risk AI system could affect the people it is used on: who is af...
  • AI riskAI risk is the combination of how likely an AI system is to cause harm and how severe that harm would be, to p...
  • Algorithmic biasAlgorithmic bias is systematic error in an AI system's outputs that produces unjustified differences in treatm...
  • AI systemA machine-based system that operates with some autonomy, may adapt after it is deployed, and infers from the i...
  • AI management system (ISO/IEC 42001)ISO/IEC 42001 is the international standard for an AI management system: the policies, roles, risk and impact...
  • Red teaming (AI)AI red teaming is structured adversarial testing in which testers try to make an AI system fail, by producing...

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Frequently asked questions

What is an AI impact assessment?

An AI impact assessment is a structured evaluation, before deployment and whenever things change, of how an AI system and its foreseeable uses may affect individuals, groups and society, recording the impacts found and the measures taken to address them.

Where does the term AI impact assessment come from?

This explanation follows ISO/IEC 42005:2025, AI system impact assessment. It is a plain-language paraphrase for orientation; the source has the binding wording.

Which laws and policies use the term AI impact assessment?

Among the records on this site: OMB M-25-21 (US) and Law 4961/2022 (emerging technologies, AI chapter) (Greece).