The AICPA AIUC-1 joint engagement: SOC 2 and AIUC-1 in one audit

What was announced

The announcement describes a single engagement led by a CPA firm. When it ends, the company holds a SOC 2 report and an AIUC-1 certification.¹ Both renew every year. AIUC-1 adds something a SOC 2 does not have: quarterly technical retesting of the agent between renewals.

The AICPA also gave a figure for scale. It says more than 40,000 organizations obtained a SOC 2 or an AIUC-1 last year.¹ The number is the AICPA’s own, and it counts both together. It says nothing about AIUC-1 alone.

Who does which part

Three parties share the work. Each one produces or checks something different, and only one of them can issue each output.

The SOC 2 half is an examination performed by a licensed CPA firm under the AICPA’s attestation standards.² The firm tests the company’s controls against the criteria in scope and reports on them.³ AIUC-1 joining the engagement does not change what a SOC 2 is, or who can sign one.

The AIUC-1 half runs on AIUC’s process. AIUC runs the technical evaluations against the agent today, and the auditor validates the method and the pass bar.⁴ An auditor AIUC has accredited reviews the controls. Only AIUC issues the official certificate.⁵

AIUC’s own pages say two things worth holding together. Its SOC 2 crosswalk says the two can be earned in one engagement with your existing SOC 2 auditor.⁶ Its accreditation page says only AIUC accredits AIUC-1 auditors.⁷ Both hold if your SOC 2 firm is on AIUC’s list. Ask your firm whether it is.

The two outputs, side by side

The engagement is one piece of work, but what comes out of it is two different documents from two different issuers. Read them as separate things. They cover different subjects, and they are tested in different ways.

If a buyer asked for a SOC 2, the SOC 2 report is what answers them. The certificate answers a different question: whether one named agent passed testing of its safeguards.

Why the AICPA says it matters

The AICPA’s case, in our words: an AI agent now holds credentials, calls APIs and acts inside a company’s core systems. When it fails, the failure can be a security breach rather than a bad answer.¹ Meanwhile trust between companies is still negotiated through long security questionnaires, one buyer at a time.

For a startup selling an agent, the second point is the practical one. A report and a certificate are documents a reviewer can check, where a questionnaire answer is only your word. SOC 2 for AI companies covers what a SOC 2 says about a model provider, and the questionnaire answers template covers the form itself.

What changes for a startup shipping an agent

Less than the headline suggests. Security is still the required baseline of a SOC 2 under the Trust Services Criteria (TSC), and the announcement describes no change to the criteria.¹⁰ What the joint engagement adds sits on top. It is also narrower than a SOC 2 in one way: AIUC-1 is scoped to one agent, not the whole company.⁸

It adds a rhythm a SOC 2 does not have. AIUC runs evals at least every 3 months while the certificate is valid, so the cost is a running line rather than one invoice a year.⁹ What AIUC-1 costs covers what sets the price.

The evidence overlaps. AIUC maps 45 of its 50 active requirements to at least one SOC 2 criterion, which means shared evidence, not coverage.⁶ The map is in AIUC-1 vs SOC 2. If the question is what a SOC 2 examiner already does about AI, the AICPA publishes technical questions and answers on how a service organization’s use of AI affects SOC examinations.¹¹

The AIUC-1 side has its own steps, from scoping the agent to quarterly retests. The step by step guide walks them in order, and the requirements guide covers what each domain asks for.

What is still unknown

The announcement leaves four things open.¹

• Which firms. No CPA firm is named.
• The price. No fee is given for the joint engagement, and AIUC publishes no AIUC-1 price.¹²
• How firms join. No CPA training or enrollment steps are described.
• The full launch. Expected in early 2027, after the initial engagements conclude.

What exists today is AIUC’s own list. As of October 19, 2026 it names 7 firms as AIUC-1 auditors.⁷ Schellman holds full accreditation, and the other 6 are provisional. The accredited auditors guide lists them with dates.

What to do while the details land

Nothing in the announcement forces a decision today. A few steps are useful whichever way you go, because they are the same steps an AIUC-1 engagement starts with:

• Ask your SOC 2 firm two questions. Does it offer the joint engagement, and is it on AIUC’s list?
• Pick the agent. AIUC-1 certifies one agent at a time, so decide which one a customer would ask about first.⁸
• Check how AIUC would reach it. An agent testable through an API and a sandbox with realistic data is quicker to test than one reachable only through its user interface.⁴
• Sort the evidence you already hold. Mark which SOC 2 items also speak to an AIUC-1 requirement, so the shared evidence is collected once.