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Nemko Digital joins the Appia Foundation as a founding member, helping shape the future of AI conformity, assurance, and trust.
Today, June 17, 2026, the Linux Foundation announced the launch of the Appia Foundation, a global initiative dedicated to building the standards and assessment infrastructure needed to make trustworthy AI demonstrable, not just aspirational. As a founding member, Nemko Digital is helping shape the framework that will enable organizations to prove AI conformity, strengthen trust, and scale responsible AI adoption. Here's what the Appia Foundation is, why it matters, and what it means for organizations navigating an increasingly complex AI compliance landscape.
The Gap That Has Always Been There
Over the past few years, the foundations for trustworthy AI have been taking shape. Regulations like the EU AI Act are moving from principles to active enforcement. International standards like ISO/IEC 42001 define what AI management systems should look like. Organizations across the world are investing in responsible AI programs.
The groundwork is real. But there has always been a gap between the rules that say what is required and the practical ability to demonstrate that a specific AI system actually meets them - in a form that others can recognize and rely on.
Think about how this works in every other established field. A building meets building codes not because it was designed by well-meaning architects, but because it was checked against specific criteria by someone qualified to check it, producing evidence others can rely on. An electrical product carries a safety mark because it was tested against published standards, in a way that a buyer in any country understands.
AI has not had that layer. Until now.
What the Appia Foundation Builds
The Appia Foundation, launched today under the Linux Foundation's Joint Development Foundation, is the international collaboration formed to build exactly this connecting layer.
Its members - drawn from across the AI value chain and three regions - develop open, publicly available specifications: the assessable criteria that let any organization demonstrate that its AI systems conform to the obligations that apply to them. Those obligations might come from law, regulation, a contract, a sector code, or a supply chain expectation. What the Appia specifications provide is a consistent, shared way to translate those obligations into something that can actually be checked.
This is not another AI governance framework. It is not another set of rules. It is what makes the existing rules work in practice.
The specifications are organized into two layers:
- Requirements and Guidance - what is required, clearly stated
- Assessment Enablement - how those requirements are evaluated in practice
Together, they answer three questions that have to be answered before any AI system can be trusted:
- What, exactly, is being examined? AI systems are rarely built by one organization. A language model, an adaptation layer, an integration into a business system, and a deployment configuration are all distinct things. Appia specifications give every party a shared way to name what is being examined, so everyone knows which part of a system a piece of evidence actually refers to.
- Who is responsible for what? Different parties in the AI value chain have different roles and different accountabilities. The specifications define how responsibilities are divided, so each party demonstrates conformity for the parts it actually controls - not more, not less.
- What does "good" look like, specifically enough to test? This is the substance: criteria that state what is required and how it is demonstrated - for example, how risk is managed across the life of an AI system.
Two Design Features Worth Understanding
Modularity. Because the AI value chain involves organizations with very different roles - model developers, deployers, integrators, platform providers, sector operators - the specifications are modular. A company configuring an AI tool for recruitment does not have to assess the entire value chain from scratch. It demonstrates what relates to its own role and the part of the system it controls. This keeps what any party must show in proportion to what they actually do.
Evidence pass-through. When an upstream provider has already demonstrated conformity for the parts it controls, that evidence carries forward to others in the chain. An organization deploying a model does not need to re-establish what the model developer already demonstrated. The evidence is reused; accountability remains in the right places. This is what makes conformity practical in a world where almost every AI system is built by multiple parties.
One important clarification: conformity with Appia specifications is a technical result, not a legal status. It demonstrates that a system meets specified criteria. Whether that satisfies a specific legal obligation depends on the framework and jurisdiction involved. Appia produces conformity infrastructure - it does not replace legal counsel or confer compliance automatically.
Who Is Building This
The founding member list is one of the clearest signals that this initiative is serious and built to last.
Alongside Nemko, the founding members include Arm, Armilla AI, Ericsson, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Mitsubishi Electric, Naaia, Omron, OpenAI, Schneider Electric, and Siemens - spanning the model and platform providers that build AI, the industrial and enterprise organizations that deploy it, the assessment and certification bodies that verify it, and the insurers that underwrite it. The membership draws from Europe, North America, and Asia.
The specifications are written by the members, in working groups open to all of them. What is written in the coming months will shape how AI conformity works for years. Early participation is the chance to shape the criteria while they are still taking form.
As Craig Shank, Executive Director of the Appia Foundation, said at launch:
"AI systems now make decisions about people's loans, their children's schools and their jobs. People on the receiving end deserve to know those systems were built and assessed against criteria that hold up to scrutiny."
Where Nemko Fits - and Why It Matters
The Appia Foundation white paper describes the founding member organizations by their role in the AI value chain. Nemko is specifically identified in the category of organizations that assess and certify AI systems - alongside the governance tooling providers.
That is not a small distinction. It means Nemko is not simply a company that uses AI or deploys it. Nemko is one of the parties that the entire ecosystem depends on to actually check whether AI systems meet the required criteria. That has been Nemko's role for over a century in product safety and testing - and the Appia Foundation is the structure that brings that same rigour to AI.
As Dr. Pepijn van der Laan, Global Technical Director at Nemko Digital, said at launch:
"Establishing a clear, industry-aligned architecture for AI standards is exactly what the ecosystem needs right now. Too many organizations struggle not with ambition, but with fragmentation across frameworks, controls, and interpretations. A Linux Foundation initiative that brings structure, openness, and technical rigor to AI standards can provide a common foundation for implementation and assurance. At Nemko Digital, we see this as a critical step toward making trustworthy AI scalable, auditable, and deployable."
What Nemko Digital Does - and How This Connects
Nemko Digital is the digital and AI-focused arm of the Nemko Group. We work with organizations that are navigating the fast-moving landscape of AI regulations, governance requirements, and trust expectations - helping them turn complexity into a clear, practical plan.
Our work covers four areas:
Digital Product Regulatory Compliance
We help you understand which regulations apply to your AI-enabled products and services - from the EU AI Act and the Cyber Resilience Act to GDPR and the Data Act - and build a clear, step-by-step path to meeting them. No unnecessary complexity. Just what applies to you and how to address it.
AI Governance and Organizational Readiness
We help you build the internal structures, policies, and processes your organization needs to govern AI responsibly. The focus is always on what your teams can actually implement and sustain - not theoretical frameworks that sit in a drawer.
AI Skilling and Tooling
We give your people the knowledge and tools they need to work with AI confidently and effectively. From executive awareness sessions to hands-on training for technical teams, we make AI understandable at every level of the organization.
Assurance and Trust Marks
We support the conformity assessment process - helping organizations prepare for audits, demonstrate conformity to regulators and supply chain partners, and achieve the trust marks that matter in your market.
The Appia Foundation's specifications will directly strengthen every one of these areas. As the framework matures, organizations that have already built the right governance foundations and worked through the compliance readiness process will be far better placed to demonstrate conformity using the Appia architecture. Getting ready now is the practical move.
What Comes Next
Today's launch is the beginning. The Appia Foundation's roadmap through 2026 includes the release of the full white paper and detailed specifications (August), the first expert-led webinar (September), a community newsletter (September), and a conference or roundtable event in October and November.
As a founding member, Nemko Digital will be actively involved at each stage - contributing to the working groups, amplifying the milestones, and helping our clients understand what each development means for them in practice.
If you want to understand how the Appia Framework connects to your AI compliance obligations, or you want to start building the governance and assessment readiness your organization needs before conformity requirements become a hard deadline, the right time to start that conversation is now.
Read the full Appia Foundation white paper and the official launch announcement to learn more about the initiative.
Nemko Digital is a founding member of the Appia Foundation. For the official Linux Foundation press release, visit linuxfoundation.org.
