Training, exams and certification
Training, exams and certification
Eighty questions in three hours, open book, seventy per cent to pass. Planning carries a quarter of the paper on its own, and the domain on the AI management system itself, the one most people expect to dominate, is five questions.
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The PECB Certified ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Implementer exam tests whether you can plan, implement and run an AI management system (AIMS) based on ISO/IEC 42001, rather than audit one.
| Questions | 80, multiple choice with three options each — standalone and scenario-based |
|---|---|
| Duration | 3 hours |
| Pass mark | 70% — 56 of 80 |
| Materials | Open book — a hard copy of ISO/IEC 42001, the training course materials and your own notes from the course |
| Delivery | Online in the PECB Exams app with a remote invigilator, or on paper at a PECB partner’s site |
| Non-native language | 30 additional minutes for Lead-level exams taken on paper, on request |
| Retakes | One free retake within 12 months for candidates trained by a PECB partner (included in our Exam Bundle) |
| Typical course | Five days, with the exam on the fifth |
| Validity | Three years, with CPD and an annual maintenance fee of USD 120 (first year included) |
| Credential | Passing the exam is one of several requirements. See below |
Six domains, eighty questions, published weights:
| Planning an AIMS implementation | 20 questions · 25% | |
| Implementing an AIMS | 18 questions · 22.5% | |
| Fundamental principles and concepts of AI and an AIMS | 17 questions · 21.25% | |
| Monitoring and measurement of an AIMS | 10 questions · 12.5% | |
| Continual improvement and preparing for the certification audit | 10 questions · 12.5% | |
| The AI management system (AIMS) | 5 questions · 6.25% |
Planning and implementation together are 38 questions, almost half of the paper. Add the principles domain and three domains cover 55 of the 80 questions: one short of the pass mark. Get those three right and the other 25 questions only decide how comfortably you pass.
The principles domain is heavier than it looks. It is where the AI concepts and terms of ISO/IEC 22989 sit, next to the management system vocabulary. Candidates who already know ISO/IEC 27001 recognise the structure of the standard straight away; the AI-specific terms are what they have to learn.
The exam is one requirement of several. PECB awards four credentials from this paper, separated by professional experience and by hours of AIMS project activity:
| Provisional Implementer | No experience required |
|---|---|
| Implementer | 2 years, 1 in AI management · 200 hours of AIMS project activity |
| Lead Implementer | 5 years, 2 in AI management · 300 hours |
| Senior Lead Implementer | 10 years, 7 in AI management · 1,000 hours |
Revise planning and implementation hardest. Together they are 38 of the 80 questions.
Learn the AI vocabulary, not only the clauses. The principles domain draws on AI concepts that ISO/IEC 27001 or ISO 9001 experience does not give you.
Index your notes by domain before the exam. Three hours for eighty questions is two minutes and fifteen seconds each: open book helps only if you can find things quickly.
Eighty multiple-choice questions, with three options each, standalone and scenario-based.
70 per cent, which is 56 of 80.
Three hours. Lead-level exams taken on paper allow 30 extra minutes, on request, for candidates sitting in a language other than their own.
Yes: a hard copy of ISO/IEC 42001, the course materials and your own notes from the course.
Not by itself. That credential also requires five years of professional experience, two of them in AI management, plus 300 hours of AIMS project activity.
Sources. Every figure on this page comes from PECB’s published candidate handbooks, brochures and certification pages, checked in October 2026.
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