Clause 3.4: AI service quality terms
New in the second edition.
What clause 3.4 is
New in the second edition. The terms define traceability as whether what the service produces can be connected back to what the user needed, or forward from that need. Service adaptability asks whether the service can be shaped around its functions, who is responsible, staff skill, how it talks to users and the tools available. Customizability asks whether the service can be changed because a user asked.
What the 2023 edition said
No equivalent. The first edition had no service model and no service terms.
What the second edition changes
All three terms are new. They support the new service quality model in clause 7.
The FDIS text is not public. The change line above is read from the public draft, which is not the FDIS and may differ. No clause level diff is invented here. The ISO stage record is the authority for the dates.
Why it matters to the buyer
Many AI systems are consumed as a service. The service terms describe quality that lives in the people, the process and the support around the model, which the product model cannot see. A buyer who asks only about the model misses the part of the service that decides whether the model is usable in practice, and a provider who sells on model accuracy alone has no vocabulary for the support it actually delivers.
What to write in the requirement
If any AI system is delivered as a service, add the three terms to the contract and the service description. Name what can be traced, what can be adapted and what can be customized, and who approves each. State the boundary between the provider's responsibility and the customer's, because the service model makes that boundary a quality question.
Evidence a reviewer asks for
A reviewer will ask whether the contract describes a product or a service. The answer decides which model applies.
- Service descriptionThe service boundary, the parties and the responsibilities on each side
- Traceability recordThe identifiers that link a request, a model version and an outcome
- Customization termsWhat can be changed at the user's request, who approves it and what is re-evaluated
Where it commonly fails
- The service description is a marketing page
- Traceability stops at the API call
- Customization has no approval route
What to do before publication
Classify each AI system as product, service or both. The classification decides the requirement set.
Read across
Source for clause 3.4: ISO/IEC 25059, Clause 3.4, retrieved 20 October 2026. The change line rests on the public draft of the second edition and ISO page 88234. The requirement, evidence and gaps are written from our record. Every source.