How we assess
AI-assisted assessment. Human certification.
Our AI system reviews your submission against each EAUS requirement. A named certification officer then verifies the findings, reviews your evidence and makes the final decision. No certification is issued automatically.
Method
How your application is assessed.
01
Application and AI-use screening
You answer the 15 EAUS 1.0 questions (Yes, No or Not applicable), tell us how you use AI, and flag any use in decisions about people such as hiring, health, credit, legal rights or safety. An optional short list of your AI tools helps us scope the review.
02
Evidence submission and review
We may ask for evidence in three areas: your AI rules, how you are open about AI use, and how a person reviews AI-assisted work. One document can cover several areas. Evidence is kept private and seen only by Ethicality staff.
03
Risk-sensitive additional checks
Where AI plays a part in decisions about people, client-facing chatbots or confidential information, we look more closely at the related requirements and may ask how a person can reject, stop or escalate an AI-assisted outcome. This adds scrutiny, not new requirements.
04
Assessment against applicable requirements
Our AI-assisted system drafts a view of each requirement. Every requirement then receives a recorded finding: Met, Not Met, Additional Evidence Required, or Not Applicable with an accepted justification.
05
Human certification-officer determination
A named certification officer checks each finding against the evidence and makes the decision. No AI system can issue a certificate. A reviewer with a conflict of interest cannot decide a file.
06
Private findings and corrective actions
You receive a private findings report. Any Not Met or Additional Evidence Required finding comes with a specific corrective action you can complete and resubmit.
07
Certification and public verification
Once every applicable requirement is Met, the certificate is issued and listed in the public registry, where anyone can verify it. Decisions are issued within 5 business days of a complete application.
08
Renewal, complaints, suspension and withdrawal
Certification is valid for one year and renews automatically unless cancelled. We send a reminder 30 days before the renewal date, and the card on file is charged on that date. Renewal includes a fresh assessment against the current standard. Anyone can raise a complaint. If a certified organization no longer meets EAUS 1.0, the certificate can be suspended or withdrawn and removed from the registry.
How decisions are made
Evidence, exceptions and corrections.
- What counts as sufficient evidence
- Evidence that a reasonable reviewer can check: an adopted policy, a client-facing statement, a screenshot, a sign-off record or a short written description of how something works in practice. It should be current and proportionate to your size and risk. Long documents are not needed.
- Requirements that do not apply
- Some requirements apply only to certain uses, such as chatbots or AI in decisions about people. If one does not apply, you say why. The officer records Not Applicable only when the justification is accepted.
- Correcting deficiencies
- A Not Met or Additional Evidence Required finding is not a failure. You get the corrective action in writing, make the change, and send updated evidence. The officer then revises the finding.
- What certification establishes
- That, at the time of assessment, the organization met the applicable EAUS 1.0 requirements for its described use of AI, based on its attestation and the evidence reviewed.
- What certification does not establish
- It is not a legal opinion, a regulatory approval, a security audit or a guarantee about any AI output. It does not certify the AI tools themselves.
See two fictional examples in the sample findings reports, and how we handle conflicts on the impartiality page. Complaints go through our complaints process.
Independence
How conflicts are managed.
- ·Assessment is performed against a published standard, not against hidden criteria.
- ·A conflicted reviewer cannot decide a file.
- ·Certification officer compensation does not depend on the outcome.
- ·Ethicality does not sell remediation consulting.
If you disagree
If you believe a finding is wrong, you can provide additional evidence or point out a factual error and request a review.
The certification officer will reconsider the finding. If it is accepted, the finding is revised. If not, you receive the reason in writing.
Ready to be assessed?
The application takes about 10 minutes. You give us a card when you submit, nothing is charged then, and your decision arrives within 5 business days. Many files are decided sooner.
Apply now →Annual recertification
Not a one-time badge. An annually verified commitment.
Every Ethicality certification is valid for one year. To renew, a business completes a new assessment against the latest approved version of EAUS, so its AI practices keep pace with evolving standards. EAUS 1.0 remains the current version until a new version is formally approved.
If a business does not yet meet the updated requirements, Ethicality provides free practical guidance, policy templates and specific recommendations to help it improve before reassessment. That support is kept separate from the independent certification decision, and approval is never guaranteed.
Certification is valid for one year and renews automatically unless cancelled. We send a reminder 30 days before the renewal date, and the card on file is charged on that date. Renewal includes a fresh assessment against the current standard.
How we assess →