Article
Rajiv Dattani
Jul 2, 2025
2
SOC 2 solved SaaS trust - AIUC-1 solves AI trust



AIUC-1 builds on the principles that made SOC 2 the standard for cybersecurity - and evolves in the places where SOC 2 falls short.
When businesses began outsourcing critical operations to third-party providers in the early 2000s, they needed confidence in external vendors without visibility into their security controls. SOC 2 solved this through independent third-party validation of operational security. It remains the gold standard.
As AI agents now make autonomous decisions, process sensitive data, and interact with customers, we face a similar trust gap: traditional compliance can't assess whether AI will hallucinate, leak data through prompt injection, or cause brand disasters. We need an industry standard for AI agents maintaining the pillars that made SOC 2 universally trusted.
What SOC 2 got right
SOC 2 became the gold standard because it solved three fundamental problems:
→ Independent validation enterprises could trust
→ Common language between buyers and vendors
→ Covered the concerns that mattered to buyers to unblock deals
These principles work and we’ve kept them in AIUC-1.
Where SOC 2 falls short - and how AIUC-1 solves it
15 years of applying SOC 2 has also shown its shortcomings:
SOC 2 | AIUC-1 |
---|---|
Process Theater Checks if you have vulnerability scanning procedures | Real Testing Actually tests the security of your AI system with adversarial attacks |
Snapshots Annual audit of systems that change constantly | Continuous Quarterly technical testing that keeps pace with AI evolution |
Ambiguous Vague requirements open to interpretation by each auditor. Option to opt-out of some categories and still receive SOC 2 attestation | Actionable Clear pass criteria with thresholds for each requirement. Certification requires all mandatory requirements to be met |
The result: the trust layer for enterprise AI adoption
By keeping SOC 2’s best practices and evolving on its shortcomings, AIUC-1 is positioned to bridge the trust-gap between AI vendors and enterprises today.
For AI vendors, AIUC-1 is a concrete way to ensure and demonstrate that your AI systems are robust and resilient to the risks unique to AI. A certificate will bring back the focus on building frontier technology instead of spending valuable resources in lengthy compliance and security reviews.
For enterprises, AIUC-1 makes AI adoption possible by offering assurances that all of the most important AI risks have been mitigated, and independent third-parties have tested that these mitigations work in the real world.
Get in touch to learn more about AIUC-1.
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