Fast-tracking ISO 42001 Certification for Xayn

A case study banner featuring Modulos and Xayn logos. The title reads, "Fast-tracking ISO 42001 Certification for Xayn, developer of Europe’s first sovereign Legal AI Noxtua." The design includes a stylized geometric icon at the top, a "Case Study" label, and an illustration of an ISO/IEC 42001 certification interface showing 100% completion. The color scheme is dark blue with accents of green and white.
  • Client: Xayn
  • Industry: Legal AI
  • Location: Germany
  • Product: Noxtua, Europe’s first sovereign Legal AI
  • Function: Chatting, reviewing, and comparing legal documents
  • Technology: Proprietary large language models (LLMs) trained on curated, high-quality real-world legal datasets, selected and annotated by legal experts

Challenge

As AI adoption accelerates, ensuring trust, transparency, and compliance is more critical than ever – especially in high-stakes industries like legal tech. Xayn, a pioneering legal AI startup and the developer of Europe’s first sovereign Legal AI, Noxtua, recognized the need to set itself apart as a trusted AI provider by obtaining ISO/IEC 42001 certification – the first international standard for AI management systems [5].

Achieving this certification was not just a regulatory milestone but a strategic challenge: Xayn needed to demonstrate that its AI systems met the highest standards in governance, risk management, and security. The ISO/IEC 42001 framework requires organizations to establish a structured AI Management System (AIMS) to manage:

● Organizational Governance – Defining clear policies, oversight, and accountability for AI usage, ensuring compliance with ethical and regulatory standards.

● Data Management – Securing the handling, storage, and processing of sensitive legal data, maintaining integrity, traceability, and GDPR compliance.

● AI Model Development & Monitoring – Ensuring fairness, transparency, privacy, and precision, with ongoing risk assessments and continuous evaluation.

● Risk Management – Identifying and mitigating AI-related risks, including bias, security vulnerabilities, and regulatory exposure.

While Xayn had already compiled substantial documentation, the certification process demanded significant time and resources to efficiently structure, validate, and align everything with ISO 42001 standards. The challenge lay in managing these resource-intensive tasks while ensuring a streamlined compliance process that maintained the highest standards for responsible, secure, and legally sound AI solutions.

Solution

To address the challenges of aligning with ISO/IEC 42001 standards, Xayn utilized the Modulos AI Governance Platform, whose product conformity for ISO 42001 was attested by CertX [6]. This platform offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to streamline AI governance and compliance processes [2,3]:

  • Curated Knowledge Base – A comprehensive repository of ISO 42001 requirements and actionable controls, to streamline the documentation process while ensuring that all requirements of the standard are covered and to sufficient depth level [3].
  • Organizational Governance – Ensures transparency, accountability, and compliance in AI management by defining AI policies, leadership commitment, stakeholder engagement, risk management, resource allocation, and continuous improvement to align with ISO 42001 standards.
  • AI Life Cycle Management -Integrates governance and compliance checks throughout the AI project lifecycle, from inception to deployment, promoting responsible development and building stakeholder trust.
  • Responsible AI Development – Assesses and monitors aspects such as bias, transparency, explainability, and security, ensurin integrity and accountability in AI systems.
  • AI Risk Management – Provides continuous, customizable risk assessments integrated into the AI lifecycle, aligning with ISO and IEEE standards.
  • AI Agents – Utilizes advanced AI agents to enhance regulatory compliance through automated guidance, real-time support, and intelligent workflow management, improving user experience.
  • Audit Readiness – Ensures AI initiatives are always prepared for audits with detailed conformity reports and historical logs of all processes and stakeholder actions, supporting effective defense strategies.

By leveraging these features, Xayn effectively aligned its operations with ISO/IEC 42001 requirements, ensuring responsible development and use of its AI systems.

Results

Achieving ISO/IEC 42001 certification has positioned Xayn as a leader in responsible AI, reinforcing trust, compliance, and market differentiation. By streamlining the process, Xayn secured certification efficiently, setting a high standard for AI governance.

  • Certified by SGS – Xayn’s compliance was validated by SGS, a globally recognize lleader in inspection and certification, ensuring adherence to the highest AI governance and security standards [4].
  • Streamlined compliance with 50% less time – By leveraging structured AI governance, Xayn optimized its processes, making certification more efficient and scalable while maintaining rigorous compliance.
  • Duration: 4 weeks to audit-readiness – The entire certification process was completed in just four weeks, demonstrating the effectiveness of a well-prepared AI management system.
  • First-mover advantage – As the first German company to achieve ISO/IEC 42001, Xayn gains a competitive edge, establishing itself as a trusted AI provider ahead of regulatory trends.

This milestone strengthens Xayn’s reputation and ensures it remains at the forefront of responsible AI innovation.

Client Testimonial

“Modulos AI Governance Platform streamlined our process, reducing the time to achieve ISO 42001 certification by 50%. Without it, we would have spent twice the amount of time manually creating control lists from ISO 42001 annexes and linking subpages. What stood out with Modulos was the intuitive, guided approach. The platform’s built-in guidance made the process seamless, and the ability to easily re-share and follow controls in the order provided was very efficient. – Dr. Leif-Nissen Lundbæk (CEO & Co-Founder, Xayn)

Conclusion

By achieving ISO/IEC 42001 certification, Xayn reinforces its leadership in ethical and responsible AI, setting a new benchmark for AI governance in the legal tech industry. This certification enhances trust in its AI solutions, ensuring compliance with the highest international standards.


With the Modulos AI Governance Platform, Xayn streamlined compliance and accelerated certification, completing the process in half the expected time. This efficiency means they have entered the market faster as a trusted AI provider, gaining a competitive advantage by demonstrating transparency, security, and regulatory readiness. As a first mover in AI governance, Xayn is well-positioned to lead the way in trustworthy and responsible AI adoption.

Want to accelerate your ISO 42001 journey? Request a demo today!

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References

[1] https://xayn.com/noxtua-research
[2] https://www.modulos.ai/modulos-ai-governance-platform/
[3] https://www.modulos.ai/blog/ai-governance-taxonomy-iso-42001-and-beyond/
[4] https://xayn.com/press/xayn-receives-iso-42001-as-first-german-company
[5] https://www.iso.org/standard/81230.html
[6] https://www.modulos.ai/press-releases/modulos-iso-42001-product-conformity/