CIP Enters a New Era: AIIM Announces Updated Certified Information Professional Exam and New Partnership with Robinson Ryan

Silver Spring, MD – The Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM) today announced that its Certified Information Professional (CIP) certification is entering a new era, with an updated exam built for how information management work is done today, a new CIP Commission to govern the certification, and a new partnership with Robinson Ryan to develop and administer the exam. The new CIP exam opens in beta on January 1, 2027, and becomes the standard exam on April 1, 2027.

“This is an exciting moment for the CIP and for the profession it serves,” said AIIM President & CEO Tori Miller Liu, CIP. “As organizations put AI to work, the people who manage their data and information are the ones who make sure that data is accurate, responsibly governed, and worthy of trust. AIIM is committed to supporting these practitioners, and the updated CIP is designed to recognize the knowledge they need to make AI and innovation succeed.”

A New Approach to the Exam

AI is now part of everyday information management work, and the new exam reflects that. To build it, AIIM surveyed practitioners in 2026 about the work they do and what they need to know. Guided by the CIP Task Force, a group of volunteer experts, the exam now covers topics such as preparing content for AI, checking AI outputs for accuracy, and using AI responsibly.

Core information management topics carry forward from earlier versions of the CIP, and the update adds areas practitioners asked for, such as physical and vital records, business continuity, and choosing vendors and AI tools. The exam is organized into five areas, weighted by how much each one matters in practitioners' day-to-day work:

The Value of Information in the Age of AI (12%)
Capturing and Preparing Information for People and Machines (23%)
Using and Sharing Information and AI Outputs (18%)
Governing, Protecting and Retaining Information (25%)
Improving Information Management (22%)

The Task Force gave the new exam outline its final approval in October 2026.

The format is changing too. The exam grows from 100 questions in two hours to 110 questions in 135 minutes. Ten of those questions are being tried out for future exams and don't count toward a candidate's score. Most questions describe a real-world situation, so they test how candidates apply what they know rather than what they can memorize.

“This is a really exciting time for the CIP,” said John Daly, CIP, of Bunge, Director At-Large on the AIIM Board of Directors and inaugural Chair of the CIP Commission. “AI has changed what information professionals do every day, and the exam now reflects that across every domain. What I'm most pleased about is that we didn't throw out the fundamentals to get there. The new material sits on the same foundation that has always made a CIP valuable, and with a new partner and a new governance structure in place, the certification is set up to keep pace with the profession.”

Raising the Bar: Following National Certification Standards

With this update, AIIM is aligning the CIP with the Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs from the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), part of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.). The NCCA standards are the recognized benchmark for professional certification, and following them makes the CIP more credible, more transparent, and more defensible. In practice, that means an exam built on a formal job task analysis, new questions pretested before they count, a passing score set through a formal standard-setting study after the beta, and strict separation between the people who write exam questions and those who develop exam preparation materials.

Governance is changing as well. On January 1, 2027, the new CIP Commission takes its seats as the certification's governing body, succeeding the CIP Task Force, with John Daly serving as its inaugural Chair. The Commission gives the CIP a dedicated body responsible for its standards, policies, and integrity.

Two Ways to Earn the CIP

Candidates currently have two options for earning the CIP:

CIP 2027 beta exam, $225. Beta exam registration is now open, and testing begins in January 2027.

130 multiple choice questions, 3 hours to complete the exam.
Proctored exam.
No study guide is available for the beta exam, but you can prepare with the 2023 Study Guide.
May be asked to provide feedback on experience.
Results are not provided immediately after the exam.

Current CIP exam (2023 version), $350 special discounted rate. Available now through April 1, 2027. Must be purchased by January 1, 2027.

100 multiple choice questions, 2 hours to complete the exam.
Proctored exam.
The study guide is available.
Results are provided immediately.
The exam must be completed by April 1, 2027.

The current CIP exam must be completed by April 1, 2027, when the new exam version, available in beta from January 1-February 15, 2027, becomes the standard. The current exam does not transfer to the new version.

A New Partnership with Robinson Ryan

AIIM has partnered with Robinson Ryan to develop and administer the CIP exam. Working alongside AIIM staff and volunteer item writers, Robinson Ryan will support exam development and deliver the exam to candidates, beginning with the beta launch in January.

AIIM has partnered with Robinson Ryan to administer both the CIP beta exam and the full CIP 2027 exam. The firm brings deep experience in professional certification, including its work helping expand the DAMA Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP) program. The partnership is designed to improve the exam-taking experience for candidates from registration through results.

“Robinson Ryan knows how to grow a credential without compromising its standards,” said Daly. “Their experience means CIP candidates will have a smoother, more modern exam experience, and it frees our staff and volunteers to focus on keeping the CIP true to the work information professionals do every day.”

About the CIP Task Force

The 2027 exam blueprint was developed by the CIP Task Force: Jason Cassidy (Shinydocs), John Daly, CIP (Bunge), Galina Datskovsky (Open Axes), Karen Hobert (Cisco), Chris McNulty (Synozur), and Jesse Wilkins, CIP (Opensity Solutions).

On January 1, 2027, the CIP Commission takes its seat as the certification's governing body, with John Daly, CIP, serving as its inaugural Chair.

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About the Association for Intelligent Information Management

Founded in 1944, the Association for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM) is a nonprofit organization serving information leaders in over 67 countries worldwide. AIIM's vision is to create a world where every organization benefits from intelligent information and data management to achieve better business outcomes. AIIM helps information leaders manage and prepare unstructured data for AI and automation by providing advice, certification, training, and peer-to-peer support. Through practical and approachable resources, AIIM enables organizations to leverage their information assets effectively, ultimately leading to improved business performance and success. Learn more about AIIM at https://www.aiim.org/.

Contact

Shelly Strickland
AIIM International
hello@aiim.org