OECD Publishes Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI, February 2026

On February 19, 2026, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI, a 61-page report providing practical guidance to enterprises for implementing OECD standards on responsible business conduct (RBC) and the OECD AI Principles when developing and using artificial intelligence systems. The publication is non-binding but represents an authoritative interpretive instrument adopted by OECD member governments in their shared commitment to trustworthy AI governance.

The Guidance draws on two OECD instruments: the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct (MNE Guidelines), which set expectations for enterprise-level due diligence across value chains, and the OECD AI Principles (Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence, OECD/LEGAL/0449), which establish five principles for trustworthy AI — inclusive growth and well-being; human-centred values and fairness; transparency and explainability; robustness, security and safety; and accountability. The Guidance applies these instruments specifically to the AI system value chain, from design and development through deployment and operation to decommissioning. Chapter 1 introduces the concept of responsible business conduct due diligence; subsequent chapters apply due diligence steps to AI-specific adverse impact categories including privacy violations, bias, safety failures, and labour-market displacement.

Enterprises that develop or deploy AI systems — including technology companies, financial services firms, healthcare providers, and organizations that procure AI-powered products — are the primary audience for the Guidance. Companies operating in OECD member states will face increasing pressure from regulators, investors, and counterparties to demonstrate AI due diligence processes aligned with the OECD standards. The Guidance promotes policy coherence and interoperability between OECD AI risk management standards and other national or international frameworks, including the EU AI Act. AI-enabled financial services firms and Web3 platforms with global operations should assess how the Guidance maps onto their existing compliance programmes, particularly regarding transparency obligations, risk assessment procedures, and third-party due diligence for AI vendors across the supply chain.

The Guidance is non-binding and does not independently impose legal obligations separate from the national laws or regulations in jurisdictions that have incorporated the OECD AI Principles into binding rules. No formal implementation deadline applies at the OECD level. The document targets interoperability with the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001, and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, meaning enterprises already compliant with those frameworks may find substantial overlap. Open questions include the extent to which national regulators in OECD member states will reference the Guidance in supervisory expectations or enforcement actions, and how it applies to open-source AI systems where the developer, deployer, and end-user are distinct entities with different responsibility profiles.

Source: OECD, "OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible AI," Report, 19 February 2026, 61 pages. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-due-diligence-guidance-for-responsible-ai_41671712-en.html. Cross-reference: OECD AI Principles, Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence, OECD/LEGAL/0449. Confirmed March 16, 2026.

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