The first major revision in over a decade is coming
The ISO 9000 family standards are undergoing their first significant revision since 2015. While final requirements won't be confirmed until late 2026, preliminary guidance from certification bodies like BSI suggests changes that reflect how organizations actually manage quality, risk and change today.
This update will fundamentally change how organizations approach compliance. Here's what leaders need to know to prepare.
Why this update matters now
The business landscape has transformed since 2015. Remote work is standard. Digital documentation dominates. Organizations face rapidly changing markets and technologies.
The 2026 revision aims to align ISO standards with how businesses actually operate today, not how they worked a decade ago. Organizations that prepare now will have a competitive advantage when the new standards arrive.
Key changes based on certification body guidance
Opportunity separated from risk management
What's changing: The 2026 revision explicitly separates opportunities from risks, moving away from the current approach where opportunity is often overlooked within risk management frameworks.
Two types of opportunity:
1. Strategic opportunity: Genuine chances to enter new markets, provide new services, or expand your business.
2. Risk-based opportunity: The potential upside of taking calculated risks (for example, a new market may be risky but the potential opportunity could justify that risk).
What this means for you: Organizations need documented processes for identifying, evaluating and pursuing opportunities, not just managing risks. This requires evidence of opportunity discussions, decisions and outcomes.
Email management connection: Opportunity discussions often happen via email before they reach formal documentation. Can you retrieve every email thread where strategic opportunities were identified? Can you prove when opportunities were first raised and how they were evaluated?
Culture integration into business strategy
What's changing: Culture is no longer a soft concept separate from strategy. The 2026 revision requires organizational culture to be explicitly fed into business strategy development.
What this means for you: You'll need documented evidence of how your organizational culture influences strategic decisions. This includes how cultural factors are considered when setting direction, making changes and pursuing opportunities.
Email management connection: Cultural discussions rarely happen in formal documents. They happen in email exchanges between leadership, in team communications and in project discussions. Without proper email management, you cannot demonstrate this cultural integration.
Change management as strategic direction
What's changing: Change management becomes a formal part of the organization's strategic direction, not just an operational concern.
Key requirements:
- All organizational changes must be captured and documented
- Change must be tied to strategic objectives
- Evidence of how changes are planned, communicated and implemented
What this means for you: Every significant change in your organization needs a documented trail showing the decision process, communication and implementation.
Email management connection: Written changes are increasingly held within emails. A strategic decision to restructure a team, change a process or adopt new technology often originates in email discussions. Without systematic email capture and filing, you lose the evidence trail of how and why changes occurred.
A practical example
Imagine maintaining a high-rise residential building. A routine refurbishment reveals a fire safety concern impacting multiple units. With access to the golden thread, the accountable person can quickly check the original materials used, installation certifications, and the maintenance history to identify the issue and take corrective action. Without this level of detailed documentation, making informed decisions becomes much harder and riskier.
Digital-first documentation becomes standard
What's expected:
- Recognition of cloud-based systems as the norm
- Explicit requirements for electronic records management
- Email formally recognized as documented information
- Enhanced data integrity requirements
What this means for you: Organizations still using paper-based systems or ad-hoc digital filing will need comprehensive upgrades. Email management moves from nice-to-have to compliance requirement.
Remote and hybrid work integration
What's expected:
- Expanded definitions of "workplace" and "work environment"
- Guidance for managing distributed teams
- Virtual auditing becomes standard practice
- Requirements for document control across multiple locations and devices
What this means for you: Your compliance systems must work seamlessly whether employees are in-office, at home or anywhere between. Personal filing systems and local storage won't meet new standards.
Critical implications for email and document management
With documented information requirements expanding to explicitly cover electronic communications, your current setup may need significant changes.
Current state challenges:
- Emails in personal inboxes aren't accessible for audits
- Manual filing to SharePoint is inconsistent and incomplete
- No automatic audit trails for email-based decisions
- Deleted mailboxes mean lost compliance records
- Opportunity and change discussions lost in email threads
2026 requirements will likely demand:
- Systematic email capture and filing
- Demonstrable integration between Outlook and SharePoint
- Automatic retention policy enforcement
- Guaranteed information retrieval within defined timeframes
- Evidence trails for opportunity identification and change management
Organizations using basic shared folders or manual filing processes will likely fail these requirements.
Why email management is critical for the three key changes
Risk and opportunity separation
Organizations often identify opportunities in email before they reach formal planning. When auditors ask "How do you identify and evaluate opportunities?", you need evidence. That evidence lives in email discussions between sales teams spotting market gaps, operations teams identifying efficiency improvements and leadership evaluating strategic options.
Without proper email management, you cannot prove your opportunity identification process.
Culture integration
Culture shows up in how people communicate. It's visible in email exchanges about how decisions are made, how teams collaborate and how problems are solved. Demonstrating that culture feeds into strategy requires evidence of these conversations.
Formal documents describe your intended culture. Email evidence proves your actual culture.
Change management
Most organizational changes start with an email. Someone identifies a problem, proposes a solution or raises a concern. These emails become the change request that triggers your formal change process.
When auditors ask "Show me your change management process", they want to see the full trail from initial identification through approval to implementation. That trail starts in email.
Your preparation timeline
Now through Q4 2025: Assessment phase
- Audit current document and email management practices
- Identify gaps between current state and anticipated requirements
- Evaluate ability to demonstrate opportunity identification, cultural integration and change management
- Budget for necessary technology upgrades
- Begin cultural change initiatives
2026: Early adoption
- Q1-Q2: Review Draft International Standard when released
- Q3-Q4: Implement changes based on final standard publication
- Begin internal audits against new requirements
2027-2029: Transition period
- Formal transition window for certified organizations
- Phased implementation of new requirements
- Updated auditor training and certification
2029: Full compliance
- ISO 9001:2015 certificates expire
- All organizations must meet 2026 standard requirements
Six actions leaders should take away
1. Assess your digital maturity
Can you guarantee retrieval of any business email from the past three years? If not, you have work to do.
2. Document your opportunity process
Review how opportunities are currently identified, evaluated and pursued. Identify where evidence exists (or doesn't exist) for these processes.
3. Evaluate cultural evidence
Can you demonstrate how organizational culture influences your strategic decisions? Where does this evidence live?
4. Audit change management
Review recent organizational changes. Can you show the complete trail from initial identification through to implementation? Are written changes captured from email discussions?
5. Fix email management
With email becoming explicit documented information and critical evidence for opportunity and change management, proper email management isn't optional. Automated filing and retention are essential.
6. Budget for change
Include ISO 9001:2026 preparation in your 2025-2026 budgets. Early investment prevents rushed, expensive implementations later.
The competitive advantage for early preparation
Organizations that wait until 2026 to start preparing will face:
- Rushed implementations with higher costs
- Potential certification gaps
- Exclusion from tenders requiring updated certification
- Competitive disadvantage against prepared organizations
Those preparing now can:
- Spread costs over multiple budget cycles
- Implement changes thoughtfully
- Train teams properly
- Gain competitive advantage as early adopters
What remains unchanged
While the update brings significant changes, core ISO 9001 principles remain:
- Customer focus
- Leadership engagement
- Process approach
- Evidence-based decision making
- Continuous improvement
The difference is how these principles are applied in a digital, distributed business environment with explicit focus on opportunity, culture and change.
The bottom line
ISO 9001:2026 isn't just an update, it's a modernization that reflects how business actually works today. Organizations that view this as an opportunity rather than an obligation will emerge stronger and more competitive.
The changes particularly impact email and document management. Manual processes that worked in 2015 won't meet 2026 standards, especially when demonstrating opportunity identification, cultural integration and change management processes.
The time to act is now.
Next steps
1. Evaluate your current state against anticipated requirements
2. Identify critical gaps in email and document management
3. Assess evidence trails for opportunity, culture and change processes
4. Build your business case for necessary investments
5. Start cultural change to prepare your organization
Remember: This guidance is based on preliminary discussions and certification body guidance as of November 2025. Final requirements may vary, but the direction is clear: digital, integrated and evidence-based.
Note: This document reflects anticipated changes based on ISO/TC 176 preliminary guidance and certification body discussions as of November 2025. Final ISO 9001:2026 requirements will be confirmed upon publication.
