# 7.2 Relation between AI tasks, AI, ISO 42102

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  7.2 Clause

  

# Relation between AI tasks, AI components, AI methods and AI capabilities

  The subclause relates four things that are often conflated: the task the system performs, the components that perform it, the methods those components use and the capabilities the system shows. The relation is what lets a reader move from a task to a method and from a capability to a component.

  
- framework clause

- ISO/IEC DIS 42102

- Last updated: 2026-10-22

  
    

## What this settles

Most description failures are category errors. A task is written where a method belongs, or a component is credited with a capability that only the combination delivers. Naming the four categories is half the fix.

    

## Who it binds

The organisation, as a method choice. It creates no duty but it creates a discipline that makes the description usable by more than one team.

    

## What to do in your practice

Use four columns for every system: task, component, method, capability. A row may repeat across columns, but each column answer must be independent. Then check the joins: every task has a component, every component a method, every capability a source.

    

## Evidence an auditor or regulator asks for

      Three artefacts that make this unit checkableA four-column table for one live system.Shows the categories are separated in practice.
A join check with no orphan task, component or capability.Proves the relation is complete.
A note of any row where the category was contested.Records the judgement, not just the result.

    Ask your teamWhich row in our description mixes a task with a method, and what did that hide?

    

## Common gaps this page catches

- The inventory column "use case" mixes tasks, components and methods in one free-text field.

- A component is credited with a capability that requires orchestration.

- No join check exists, so orphan rows go unnoticed.

    

## What to prepare before publication

Rebuild one system description in the four columns and run the join check. The orphan rows are the action list.

    

## How to test it here

Take one live system rather than a template, find the field or sentence where Relation between AI tasks, AI components, AI methods and AI capabilities is used, and put this page beside it. Record the answer, the artefact and the date. A glossary entry on its own is an intention; a dated record beside a live artefact is evidence.

    

## What this page does not claim

The page does not reproduce the draft, does not know the descriptor wording that the public preview withholds, and does not certify the system or the organisation. It states the unit at the claim level "framework clause" and stops where the public record stops.

    

## Common questions

    What does Relation between AI tasks, AI components, AI methods and AI capabilities mean in ISO/IEC DIS 42102?
The subclause relates four things that are often conflated: the task the system performs, the components that perform it, the methods those components use and the capabilities the system shows. The relation is what lets a reader move from a task to a method and from a capability to a component.
What evidence should we keep for 7.2?
A four-column table for one live system. A join check with no orphan task, component or capability.
Is Relation between AI tasks, AI components, AI methods and AI capabilities a requirement?
No. The draft is a descriptive framework. It sets no management system requirement and no conformity test. It becomes binding only when a contract, a regulator or a management system adopts it.

    

## Related units

    
- 7 Framework for characterizing AI system methods and capabilities

- 7.1 General

- 7.3 Characterization framework of AI system methods and capabilities

- 4.4 Understanding AI methods and AI system capabilities

- 4.5 Application to AI systems

  

  
    
      

## Source and claim

      ISO/IEC DIS 42102, Clause 7.2, Relation between AI tasks, AI components, AI methods and AI capabilities

      Open the ISO public entry

      https://www.iso.org/standard/86898.html

      Retrieved 22 October 2026.

      The heading is in the public preview; the body is not.

    

    
      

## The record

      Stage 40.60, Close of voting, recorded 8 September 2026.

      Planning date 16 September 2027, an estimate. See the basis.

      The draft record · How it is built

    

    
      

## Check your own system

      Build the method and capability matrix from ten answers and see which cells still need evidence.

      Run the free check

    

  

Nothing here is guessed while you wait. Every line is written from the public ISO record and the public preview, and points to the exact clause it came from. How the record is built.

Last updated: 2026-10-22 · Markdown version · Check your system

Source: https://iso-42102-revision-checker.theartofservice.com/clauses/tasks-components-methods-capabilities/