EU Artificial Intelligence Act

In December of 2023, European lawmakers announced a provisional agreement on the final text of a new AI Act, giving developers and users of AI systems the first chance to consider in detail what the proposed new framework could mean for them.

Businesses are now in a position to consider the role AI systems plays in their organisation and how to mitigate potential risks that may arise as a result of this new legislative advancement.

In the report below, our Risk Consulting team takes a look at how businesses can prepare for the AI Act.

The Act will impact both developers and deployers of AI systems and will legislate the following:

• Human oversight measures for high-risk AI systems, 
• Effective employer obligations for organisations planning to deploy AI at the workplace, 
• Testing of AI systems in real world conditions, and 
• Implementation of codes of practice for the proper compliance with the obligations of the regulation for providers of General-Purpose AI systems.

The Act represents a major overhaul for businesses that develop or deploy AI systems. Businesses that produce or deploy AI systems in the course of their work should consider how AI can be made compliant with the EU AI Act (and what impact that may have on the business and its operational performance).

The paper below sets out the key developments of the AI Act and how it applies to businesses that either develop or deploy AI systems.

An AI system “is a machine-based system designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and that may exhibit adaptiveness after deployment and that, for explicit or implicit objectives, infers, from the input it receives, how to generate outputs such as content, predictions, recommendations, or decisions that can influence physical or virtual environments.”