Free check

The AI Act checklist that knows which lines are yours

The usual version of this is a PDF behind an email form: one list, written once, identical for a hospital and a hairdresser, and every tick on it something you still have to work out for yourself. Answer a few questions instead and this returns the duties that follow from your answers, the article each one comes from, whether it is enforceable today or dated, and which ones are not yours at all. The answers stay in this tab, and an account is never needed.

448days until the high-risk obligations apply. That date moved in July 2026, so guidance written before then quotes one that has already passed.

The same tool, three different answers

Every duty below carries the article it comes from and the date it starts, because a prohibition in force since February 2025 and an obligation starting in December 2027 call for very different responses.

  • Summarising your own internal documents

    Minimal risk

    Make sure the people using it understand what it does and where it fails

    Article 4 · In force since 2 Feb 2025

    Closed by: A completed literacy session, dated, per person

  • A support chatbot customers talk to

    Limited risk

    Tell the person they are dealing with a machine, before they start

    Article 50(1) · From 2 Aug 2026

    Closed by: The disclosure line itself, and where it appears

  • Drafting public-facing articles

    Limited risk

    Label AI-generated text published to inform the public

    Article 50(4) · From 2 Aug 2026

    Closed by: The published label, and who is accountable for review

  • Shortlisting job applicants

    High risk

    Assign human oversight to somebody competent, keep the logs, and tell staff before you use it on them

    Article 26 · From 2 Dec 2027

    Closed by: The named overseer, the retained logs, the notice to workers

Risk attaches to the use, never to the tool. The same subscription is untouched in one hand and high-risk in the next, which is why an inventory of software tells you nothing and an inventory of uses tells you everything.

FourWinds Digital · fourwindsdigital.com

AI Act scope and obligations checklist

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744

A scoping result produced from the answers given on the page. It says which conversation you are in. It is not legal advice, and it is current as at the date it was printed.

This is a scoping result worked out from your own answers. It tells you which conversation you are in. It is not legal advice, and it is not a determination that you comply.

What was answered

Optional, and nothing in the answer depends on it. It goes onto the result if you print it.

Does anyone use AI tools on the business's behalf?
01Does anyone use AI tools on the business's behalf? Not answered

Does anyone use AI tools on the business's behalf?

Staff drafting with an assistant, a chatbot on the site, anything running in a workflow. This is the Article 4 trigger and it does not depend on what the system does.

Does anything work out how staff, candidates or students feel?
02Does anything work out how staff, candidates or students feel? Not answered

Does anything work out how staff, candidates or students feel?

Video interview software scoring confidence or engagement, sentiment analysis on staff calls, attention monitoring in a classroom or exam. Ask this about tools you bought as well as ones you built.

Does anything do one of these?
03Does anything do one of these? Not answered

Does anything do one of these?

Scoring people socially and using it against them in an unrelated setting; scraping facial images from the internet or CCTV to build a database; sorting people by race, politics, religion, trade union membership or sexual orientation using biometrics; predicting crime from personality alone; or generating intimate imagery of a real person without consent.

What is it used to decide?
04What is it used to decide? Not answered

What is it used to decide?

These are the Annex III categories, in plain words. Pick every one that fits, and pick none if none do. Most businesses land on none, and that is a real answer rather than a missing one.

Answer the questions and the checklist appears here, sorted by what is already enforceable and what is not.

What this does not do

It scopes. It tells you which conversation you are in, which is the part that is genuinely hard to work out and the part every generic checklist skips. It is not the record itself: it does not hold your systems, evidence that a duty was met, or the dates each one falls due, and it is not legal advice.

For the Article 50 transparency duties in full, including the wording you can publish, use the transparency check. For the reasoning behind the dates on this page, including what the Digital Omnibus moved and what it did not, read the deadline that moved.

Talk to us about the record