Complete Guide to EU AI Act Compliance for Your AI Systems
Understand requirements, implement testing frameworks, and maintain compliance with the EU's comprehensive AI regulation. Built-in compliance tools for high-risk AI systems.
Start Compliance AssessmentWhat is the EU AI Act?
The EU AI Act is the world's first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence, establishing harmonized rules for AI systems operating in the European Union. It takes a risk-based approach, with stricter requirements for higher-risk AI applications.
The Act applies to providers and deployers of AI systems in the EU, regardless of where the provider is located. It covers AI systems used in employment, education, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, and other high-impact areas.
Non-compliance can result in fines up to €35 million or 7% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. Organizations must implement robust testing, documentation, and governance practices to meet compliance requirements.
EU AI Act Risk Classification
The EU AI Act categorizes AI systems into four risk levels, each with different compliance obligations:
AI systems that pose a clear threat to safety, livelihoods, and rights are banned in the EU.
- Social scoring systems by governments
- Real-time biometric identification in public spaces (with limited exceptions)
- Manipulative AI that exploits vulnerabilities
- AI that categorizes people based on sensitive characteristics
AI systems that significantly impact health, safety, or fundamental rights require comprehensive compliance measures.
- Employment and worker management (hiring, promotion, termination)
- Access to education and vocational training
- Credit scoring and creditworthiness assessment
- Law enforcement and border control
- Critical infrastructure management
- Healthcare diagnosis and treatment decisions
Compliance Requirements:
- Risk management system
- Data governance and quality
- Technical documentation
- Record-keeping and logging
- Transparency and user information
- Human oversight measures
- Accuracy, robustness, and cybersecurity
- Conformity assessment before deployment
AI systems with transparency risks must inform users they are interacting with AI.
- Chatbots and conversational AI
- Emotion recognition systems
- Biometric categorization systems
- AI-generated content (deepfakes, synthetic media)
Requirement: Clear disclosure that users are interacting with AI or viewing AI-generated content.
Most AI systems fall into this category with no specific legal obligations under the EU AI Act.
- AI-enabled video games
- Spam filters
- Recommendation systems for entertainment
- Inventory management AI
Note: Organizations may voluntarily adopt codes of conduct and best practices for minimal risk AI.
Compliance Requirements for High-Risk AI Systems
Establish a continuous risk management process throughout the AI system lifecycle.
- Identify and analyze known and foreseeable risks
- Estimate and evaluate risks that may emerge during use
- Evaluate other possibly arising risks based on post-market monitoring data
- Adopt suitable risk management measures
- Test risk management measures and document results
Ensure training, validation, and testing datasets meet quality criteria.
- Relevant, representative, and free of errors
- Complete and appropriate statistical properties
- Consider characteristics of intended users and geographic context
- Document data provenance and preprocessing steps
- Implement bias detection and mitigation measures
Maintain comprehensive documentation demonstrating compliance with EU AI Act requirements.
- General description of the AI system and intended purpose
- Detailed description of system elements and development process
- Monitoring, functioning, and control mechanisms
- Risk management documentation
- Data governance and training methodologies
- Validation and testing procedures and results
- Cybersecurity measures
Implement automatic logging capabilities to ensure traceability throughout the AI system lifecycle.
- Log events and decisions made by the AI system
- Record input data and outputs
- Track system performance and anomalies
- Enable identification of reasons for incorrect outputs
- Maintain logs for appropriate duration based on use case
Provide clear, accessible information to users and deployers about the AI system.
- Identity and contact details of provider
- Characteristics, capabilities, and limitations of the AI system
- Performance metrics and expected accuracy
- Known and foreseeable risks
- Instructions for use and human oversight requirements
- Expected lifetime and maintenance needs
Design AI systems to enable effective human oversight during use.
- Understand AI system capabilities and limitations
- Monitor AI system operation and detect anomalies
- Interpret AI system outputs correctly
- Decide not to use the AI system in a particular situation
- Intervene or interrupt AI system operation
- Override AI system decisions when necessary
Ensure AI systems achieve appropriate levels of accuracy and resilience.
- Define and document appropriate accuracy metrics
- Test for robustness against errors, faults, and inconsistencies
- Implement cybersecurity measures against attacks
- Ensure resilience to attempts to alter use or performance
- Validate performance across diverse scenarios and edge cases
Complete conformity assessment before placing high-risk AI systems on the market.
- Internal control (self-assessment) for most high-risk AI systems
- Third-party assessment for biometric identification and critical infrastructure
- Draw up EU declaration of conformity
- Affix CE marking to demonstrate compliance
- Register system in EU database before deployment
How to Implement EU AI Act Compliance
Determine the risk level of your AI system based on its intended purpose and use case. Review the EU AI Act's Annex III for the list of high-risk AI systems. If your system falls into a high-risk category, prepare for comprehensive compliance requirements.
Create an AI governance structure with clear roles and responsibilities. Assign a compliance officer or team responsible for EU AI Act adherence. Establish processes for risk management, documentation, and ongoing monitoring.
Deploy comprehensive testing frameworks to validate AI system performance, accuracy, robustness, and fairness. Use automated evaluation tools to continuously monitor compliance metrics. Document all testing procedures and results.
Compile comprehensive technical documentation covering system design, data governance, risk management, testing results, and compliance measures. Ensure documentation is maintained and updated throughout the AI system lifecycle.
Conduct internal conformity assessment (or third-party assessment if required). Draw up EU declaration of conformity, affix CE marking, and register the system in the EU database before deployment.
Establish continuous monitoring systems to track AI performance in production. Report serious incidents to authorities. Maintain logs and records. Update risk assessments based on real-world usage data.
How TowardsEval Simplifies EU AI Act Compliance
Automated Compliance Testing
Built-in test suites for bias detection, robustness validation, and accuracy measurement aligned with EU AI Act requirements.
Comprehensive Documentation
Automatically generate technical documentation, test reports, and audit trails required for conformity assessment.
Continuous Monitoring
Real-time monitoring of AI system performance with alerts for compliance violations and performance degradation.
Risk Management Tools
Structured workflows for identifying, assessing, and mitigating AI risks throughout the system lifecycle.
Expert Guidance
Access to Forward Deployed Eval Engineers who understand EU AI Act requirements and can guide your compliance journey.
Start Your EU AI Act Compliance Journey
Get expert guidance and automated tools to achieve EU AI Act compliance. Assess your AI systems, implement required testing, and maintain ongoing compliance with TowardsEval.