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About AIPA

Built by practitioners, for the people who build AI

The AI Practitioners Alliance is an independent certification body. We set vendor-neutral standards for AI work and examine people against them, so employers can tell who can actually do it.

Why we exist

Employers need a signal they can trust

As AI reaches into everyday work, employers and clients need a reliable way to tell who can actually do it. We design, examine and issue professional AI certifications that are independent of any single vendor.

They are professional certifications rather than academic degrees or government-recognised qualifications, so their value comes from how rigorously they are examined. That's why we publish how every credential is built.

Impartial by design
Certification decisions are kept separate from training, under a written impartiality policy, with a conflict-of-interest record for the staff who make them.
Vendor-neutral
We certify capability, not products. A credential says what you can do, whichever tools or platforms you use.
Examined to a standard
Proctored exams, question banks monitored for difficulty and fairness, and the same fixed pass mark for every candidate.
Built to ISO/IEC 17024
The international standard for bodies that certify people. We follow its structure; we are not yet accredited to it.

How AIPA is governed

The scheme is run separately from the courses

ISO/IEC 17024 asks that the people who decide certifications are competent, independent and kept apart from training. These are the bodies that do that. None is fully seated yet: until they are, interim decisions on the scheme are recorded and wait for the Certification Committee to ratify them.

Certification Committee

Owns the scheme: the blueprint, the pass mark and the rules for awarding, suspending and renewing a credential. Reviews it at least once a year.

At least three members balancing practice, research and assessment. No single interest group dominates, and no one affiliated with an AI vendor sits on it.

Being seated

Impartiality oversight

Watches for anything that could bias a certification decision, reviews the impartiality risk register, and can require corrective action.

Members independent of AIPA's commercial management, without a financial stake in how many people certify.

Being seated

Subject-matter expert panels

Write and review exam questions against the blueprint, and set the pass mark by a modified-Angoff study.

Working practitioners in the exam's domains. Today's question review was AI-assisted and the pass mark is provisional until a human panel sits.

Recruiting

Put yourself forward

Help set the standard

We're looking for practitioners, researchers and assessment specialists to sit on the Certification Committee and our subject-matter expert panels — including at least one member independent of AIPA. Tell us about your work; every appointment is recorded with its evidence of competence and a declaration of interests.

Certification Committee member

  • Ratify the scheme and the decisions taken while the Committee was being seated
  • Meet at least once a year, and when the scheme changes materially
  • Declare your interests; recuse yourself where one applies
  • Not open to anyone affiliated with an AI vendor
Express interest: Certification Committee member

SME panel member

  • Review exam questions in your domain for accuracy and fairness
  • Take part in setting the pass mark
  • Declare your interests; questions touching your employer go to someone else
  • Vendor affiliation is declared and managed, not disqualifying
Express interest: SME panel member

How a credential is built

Five steps, each written down

  1. 1

    Job-task analysis

    What practitioners actually do, written down first; every question traces back to it.

  2. 2

    Blueprint

    The domains an exam covers and the weight of each — published on every credential's page.

  3. 3

    Items, reviewed

    Each question is checked against its objective and approved before use, and every sign-off is recorded. Review by a panel of human subject-matter experts is planned.

  4. 4

    Pass mark

    One pass mark for everyone, fixed for each attempt when it starts. Today's is provisional; a human panel will replace it.

  5. 5

    Monitoring

    Item statistics and fairness checks across groups; weak or biased items are flagged and retired.

Accreditation status

Built to ISO/IEC 17024. Not accredited to it.

Our scheme follows ISO/IEC 17024, the international standard for bodies that certify the competence of people: an impartiality policy, documented governance, controlled records, internal audit and management review.

Accreditation is a separate step, assessed by an accreditation body. Our plan is an independent gap analysis first, then an application to a body such as ANAB or NABCB. Until that is awarded, we will not describe ourselves as accredited.

Where we are

  1. Scheme built to ISO/IEC 17024Done
  2. Certification Committee seatedIn progress
  3. Independent gap analysisPlanned
  4. Application to an accreditation bodyPlanned
  5. AccreditedNot yet

Why it holds up

What protects every credential

Scored on our side
Each exam is put together and marked on our servers. The correct answers never reach a candidate's browser.
Identity before the exam
A photo ID and a selfie are reviewed by a person before a proctored exam can start.
Appeals and complaints
A written route to appeal a result and to raise a complaint. Each is decided by a person and recorded.
Accommodations
Adjustments such as extra time, requested before the exam and applied to the attempt automatically.
Privacy
Proctoring recordings and voluntary demographic answers are consented to, kept to a minimum, and deleted on a retention schedule.
Live status, in public
A public page and a keyed API show each credential as valid, suspended, expired or revoked — and it exports as an Open Badge.

Training provider or firm?

Talk to us about preparing candidates for an AIPA credential, or certifying a team.

Get in touch