Conformance
The demonstrable property of meeting a stated standard — as distinct from claiming alignment with one. Requires a standard specific enough to fail.
Why it matters
Applies to anyone making a governance claim to a counterparty, an allocator or an examiner. It bites in diligence, when the claim is tested. It fails when the standard has no pass mark: two institutions can both claim NIST AI RMF alignment while operating at entirely different risk levels, because the framework defines process rather than threshold. That is not a criticism of NIST — it is the difference between a framework and a conformance regime, and the AI governance field currently has many of the first and none of the second.
What it is not
These are routinely confused with Conformance. The distinctions are not pedantic — each one has consequences for how a system is governed.
Alignment is a claim about intent. Conformance is a claim about a property, and it can be assessed.
Certification is conformance attested by an accredited third party. Conformance can be self-asserted and frequently is.
Compliance is with law. Conformance is with a standard, which may have no legal force whatever.
Relationships
Typed edges into the rest of the ontology. These are what make the canon traversable rather than merely readable.
| Verb | Target | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
addresses | marque:standards | The subject speaks to the object as a question or concern. |
relatedTo | ISO-42001 | An association too weak or too general for a stronger verb. |
Record
| Canonical identifier | QIS-TERM-00032 |
| Status | Canonical industry term |
| Adoption | Emerging |
| Domain · Layer | MARQUE questions · Governance |
| Origin | MARQUE question 08. A term of art in standards work; largely undefined in AI governance, which is the problem. |
| Semantic aliases | Standards & interoperabilityStandards and interoperability |
| First published | 2026-08-02 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-08-02 · 180-day cycle |
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