Is AIR APAC a vendor or an agency?
AIR APAC is neither a vendor nor an agency. It is the issuing body of AIRS-J/1. This page sets out what kind of organisation AIR APAC is, what it sells and does not sell, and which rules keep a sale apart from a result.
Judgment is how well a person decides once AI has given the answer. AIR APAC publishes a standard for judgment in AI-enabled work, AIRS-J/1, and certifies people against it.
The short answer: AIR APAC is neither a vendor nor an agency. It is the issuing body of AIRS-J/1. It does sell some things, and the rules below keep what it sells apart from its results.
What is AIR APAC?
AIR APAC Pte. Ltd. is a company registered in Singapore (UEN 202600913G). It publishes AIRS-J/1, the Standard for Judgment in AI-Enabled Work, and it owns the Standard. It certifies people against the Standard. It publishes the AI Readiness Index once a year, and it trains people through AIR Academy, AIR APAC's learning division.
Is AIR APAC a software or AI vendor?
No. AIR APAC sells training, assessment and advice. It does not sell software.
Built by Exeter Labs
Exeter Labs builds and operates StepSim, AIR APAC's official assessment instrument. The owner of AIR APAC also owns Exeter Labs. StepSim is an AIR APAC initiative, and the Standard declares this interest in Section 4.9 so that no reader has to find it. Exeter Labs also holds the intellectual property in, builds and operates the other tools AIR APAC uses, under contract with AIR APAC (Section 4.9).
Does AIR APAC sell anything?
Yes: AIR APAC sells training, assessment and advice, and the Level 1 course in AI Fluency is free, permanently. Fees are confirmed at registration. Verification is free. Checking a credential needs no account, no registration and no commercial relationship with AIR APAC (Section 14.3).
Does buying training or an assessment change a result?
No. The Standard says: "Certification outcomes are decided by the rules in Section 12 alone, never by what a candidate or employer bought." (Section 4.3). It also says that the owner of AIR APAC "takes no part in any individual result" (Section 4.3). No assessor, delivery partner, trainer or licensee is paid on a basis that varies with candidate outcomes (Section 4.4).
Is AIR APAC a government agency or a regulator?
No. AIR APAC is a private limited company registered in Singapore. It approves nothing on behalf of any regulator. AIR APAC does not claim approval from any regulator or funder. The Standard is published so that any party, a regulator included, can inspect the criteria against which a decision was made (Section 1).
Is AIR APAC a recruitment or staffing agency?
No. AIR APAC places no one in a job. An employment-grade result (Section 12.8) is AIR APAC's expert reading of the person's judgment in AI-enabled work. The employer may rely on it as one input (Section 12.6). The Standard says AIR APAC "does not make, and does not accept responsibility for, the employer's decision about the person" (Section 12.6).
Can a customer change the criteria?
No. Section 4.5 is headed "No customer-authored criteria". Delivery partners and licensed trainers "may not vary, extend, reweight or supplement the dimensions, anchors, thresholds or decision rules" (Section 4.5). An employer describes the role; it "does not set, weight or add criteria" (Section 12.10). AIR APAC applies no undisclosed criterion, weighting, adjustment or override (Section 4.1), and the full rubric is published in the Standard.
Who checks AIR APAC?
A review board, drawn from AIR APAC's standing councils, reviews every major version of the Standard before release (Section 4.2). The owner of AIR APAC decides and holds a veto over the board's recommendations. Section 17 of the Standard names an external academic reviewer. An appeal is decided by an appeals reviewer who was not involved in the original decision and is not employed by or paid through Exeter Labs (Section 17). The page on how the Standard is governed sets out each role.
Does AIR APAC take money from the organisations its AI Readiness Index measures?
AIR APAC sells nothing to an organisation while its AI Readiness Index research is measuring that organisation. It takes no money from the companies whose AI systems it measures. Every organisation and place it measures receives its result free, at the same time and in the same form, whether or not it has ever paid AIR APAC. Buying training does not change any result in the AI Readiness Index.
How can AIR APAC be described in one line?
AIR APAC Pte. Ltd. is a Singapore company that publishes AIRS-J/1, the standard for judgment in AI-enabled work, certifies people against it and publishes the AI Readiness Index each year. It is not a technology vendor, a government agency or a recruitment agency.
What this does not claim
- It does not claim that AIR APAC has no commercial interest. AIR APAC sells training, assessment and advice, and its owner also owns Exeter Labs.
- It does not claim that any regulator, funder or standards body has approved AIR APAC, the Standard or a result.
- It does not describe the ownership of AIR APAC and Exeter Labs beyond the interest declared in Section 4.9.
- It does not describe a result as anything more than the person's judgment in AI-enabled work at the level certified.
AIR APAC publishes the standard for judgment in AI-enabled work, certifies people against it through its official instrument, and stands behind every result.