August 2026. The revision of ISO 9001 has entered its final stage. The Final Draft International Standard (FDIS) has been issued and publication is scheduled for 16 September 2026, followed by a three-year transition period running to September 2029. Your current ISO 9001:2015 certificate stays valid throughout. This is an evolution rather than a break — but on five points you will have to demonstrate something different.
Status: FDIS, no longer DIS
Much of what has been written about this revision is based on the Draft International Standard from August 2025. That stage has passed: the FDIS is out, which means the text is largely settled. What you read about the changes now is considerably more reliable than it was six months ago. Minor editorial differences between FDIS and the published standard remain possible.
Climate change in clause 4.1
When determining your context you must assess whether climate change is a relevant issue for your organisation. This is the same addition that landed in ISO 27001, ISO 14001 and the other management system standards back in 2024. The requirement is not that you build a climate programme, but that you make the assessment and record it — including when the conclusion is that relevance is limited.
Risks and opportunities pulled apart
Clause 6.1 is being split: risks get their own subclause, and so do opportunities. Both call for determination, analysis, evaluation and monitoring of effectiveness. In practice this is the change most organisations will have work on, because under the 2015 version “opportunities” was often handled with a single sentence in the management review minutes. That will no longer be enough.
Quality culture and ethical behaviour
Culture and ethical behaviour become an explicit part of leadership, awareness and the environment in which processes operate. Auditors will test this the way they test security awareness under ISO 27001: through conversations on the shop floor, not through a policy document. A signed code of conduct is the starting point, not the evidence.
Change management gets tighter
Clause 6.3 on planning of changes has been expanded considerably. Expect to demonstrate how you control changes to processes, resources, technology and responsibilities — including who decides and how you roll back when something goes wrong.
Digitalisation, data and AI
The standard recognises automation, cloud services, data analysis and artificial intelligence as part of quality management. If you use AI in or around your processes, the integrity of that data and the monitoring of those tools become audit topics. Anyone already working with ISO 42001 will recognise the line of questioning.
What to do this month
Do not wait for September. Review your context analysis for the climate item, separate risks from opportunities in your risk register, and map where AI and automation already touch your processes. That is three one-hour sessions, and it delivers the bulk of the transition. See also our pages on ISO 14001 and audit preparation.
This article is based on the FDIS version. After publication on 16 September 2026 we will update it to reflect the final text.