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Glossary

AI Act

Glossary

art. 3, punto 4, Reg. (UE) 2024/1689

Updated 23 September 2026

by Alessandro Monego

Deployer (AI Act)

Under the AI Act, a deployer is the person or organisation that uses an artificial intelligence system under its own authority, except where it does so in the course of a personal, non-professional activity: in practice, the company that adopts and uses an AI tool developed by someone else.

Deployer and provider

The AI Act distinguishes whoever develops an AI system and places it on the market (the provider) from whoever uses it in their own business (the deployer). An SME that uses AI-based recruitment software, or a customer service assistant, is a deployer. If it substantially modifies a high-risk system or puts it back on the market under its own name, it can become a provider, with much heavier obligations.

What it must do

The obligations depend on the system's level of risk:

  • for high-risk systems (Article 26): use them according to the instructions, assign human oversight to competent people, check the quality of the input data it controls, monitor how the system operates, keep the logs for the required period, inform the workers concerned;
  • for some systems that interact with people or generate content, transparency obligations (Article 50).

The dates of application are staggered and, for the obligations on high-risk systems, were amended in 2026 by the "Digital Omnibus" regulation on AI. Always check the date that applies to your case in the consolidated text on EUR-Lex.

In practice

The first step for a deployer is the inventory: which AI tools the company uses, for what, with which data. It is the same inventory of software and services that NIS2 requires through the basic measures. In the Epic Assess platform you do it with the AI Act module, together with the risk classification and the deployer obligations.

Legal reference

Article 3(4), Articles 26 and 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act).

Related terms

Sources

The sources are official texts, published in Italian.

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