The honest answer​

AI is faster, more detailed, and more consistent than writing everything by hand. A single procedure in a Quality Management System can take days to draft from scratch. With AI, the first draft takes minutes — leaving more time for what actually matters: reviewing, correcting, and refining the content until it's right.

We don't use AI to replace expertise. We use it to express expertise faster.

How it works in practice​

Our development process looks like this:

1. A human defines the scope — what procedure to write, what it needs to cover, which ISO/IEC 17025 clauses it maps to.
2. AI produces a draft — structured, detailed, and consistent with the rest of the QMS.
3. A human reviews and corrects — checking technical accuracy, practical applicability, and alignment with how real laboratories operate.
4. The result is published openly — so anyone can inspect, challenge, or improve it.

This is not "AI-generated content" in the way people usually mean. It's human-directed, AI-assisted development — the same way a programmer uses a compiler or an engineer uses CAD software. The tool amplifies the work; it doesn't replace the thinking.

Why transparency matters​

We could have said nothing. Most projects that use AI don't disclose it. But we think transparency is a strength, not a vulnerability — especially for a project about quality management, where integrity and traceability are foundational principles.

If you're evaluating this QMS for your laboratory, you deserve to know how it was made. And if you find an error — whether introduced by AI or by us — the entire project is open for you to flag it, fix it, or improve it.

The bigger picture​

ISO/IEC 17025 QMS documents are expensive to develop. Consultants charge thousands. Small laboratories and those in developing countries are often priced out entirely.

If AI can help produce high-quality, openly licensed QMS documentation that any laboratory can adopt and adapt — the net benefit far outweighs anyone's discomfort with the method. Access to quality should not depend on budget.

We'd rather develop, correct, and improve in the open than wait for a perfect process that never ships.

The problem​

Every laboratory that pursues accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 faces the same challenge: the standard defines what you need, but not how to document it. Most labs either hire expensive consultants or adapt internal documents that are never shared with anyone else.

This means thousands of laboratories around the world are solving the same problems independently — writing the same procedures, the same policies, the same forms — from scratch.

What we're building​

OpenQMS 17025 is a fully open Quality Management System, developed incrementally and transparently. We will work through each clause of the standard and produce:

• Plain-language explanations of each requirement
• Ready-to-adapt policy and procedure templates
• Implementation guidance for common lab types

All content is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 — you can use it, adapt it, and redistribute it freely for non-commercial purposes.

How to contribute​

OpenQMS is built in the open on GitHub. If you have experience with ISO 17025, laboratory accreditation, or quality management, we welcome your contributions:

• Open an issue to suggest improvements
• Submit a pull request with new content or corrections
• Share this project with colleagues who might benefit

Let's build this together.