European UnionAI Literacy - Questions & Answers, the European Commission's reading of Article 4 of the AI Act
AI Literacy - Questions & Answers
Guidance, not a law: the European Commission's reading of AI Act, Article 4 (AI literacy). It binds nobody by itself; the law it reads does.
Guidance on an AI governance rule, addressed to public and private bodies.
- Criminal exposure
- No
- Private right of action
- No
- Instrument type
- guidance published by a regulator
- How the hook was established
- express
- What makes it apply
- Market targeting, Place of effect
- Obligation class
- Governance
- Audit expectation
- none
As of .
What the regulator expects
- Providers and deployers of AI systems should take measures to support the development of AI literacy of their staff and of other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf, who are not employees but persons broadly under the organizational remit, such as a contractor, a service provider or a client (the page's answers on Article 4(1) and on the target group).
- Providers and deployers should consider at least four steps in building AI literacy actions: a general understanding of AI within the organization, the organization's role as provider or deployer, the risk of the AI systems provided or deployed, and actions built on that analysis that account for differences in technical knowledge, experience, education and training and for the context of use (the page's answer on the minimum content of a program).
- Organizations should adapt their AI literacy approach to their role and to the risks of the AI systems they provide or deploy, and additional measures might be relevant if those systems are high-risk under Chapter III of the AI Act (the page's answer on a risk-based approach).
- No specific level of AI literacy is mandated and Article 4 does not entail an obligation to measure the knowledge of AI of employees (the page's answers on measuring knowledge).
- No certificate is needed, and an organization can keep an internal record of trainings and/or other guiding initiatives (the page's answer on documenting actions).
- No mandatory training, strict format or specific governance structure is imposed, and the requirements for a training depend on the concrete context (the page's answers on training format and governance).
- The obligation to take measures to support AI literacy applies since , and the national market surveillance authorities start supervising and enforcing it on (the page's answers on enforcement).
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- GOVERN 2.2The organization’s personnel and partners receive AI risk management training to enable them to perform their duties and responsibilities consistent with related policies, procedures, and agreements.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
National market surveillance authorities, not the AI Office.
Settledness
The page says that further guidance on enforcement might be provided by the national market surveillance authorities.
- As of
- Open questions
- Do the national market surveillance authorities start supervising and enforcing the rules on or on , when the page gives both dates in its answers on enforcement?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
The page says no certificate is needed and that an organization can keep an internal record of trainings and/or other guiding initiatives, which states no duty to keep a record.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
The European Commission describes its practical guidance on Article 4 of the AI Act, including the AI Literacy Questions and Answers page, as informative material. The page carries a last update date of . The page says that the amendments of Article 4 brought about by the Digital Omnibus on AI entered into force in mid-July 2026.
The page says that Article 4(1) of the AI Act requires providers and deployers of AI systems to take measures to support the development of AI literacy of their staff and other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf. The page says that persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on behalf of providers and deployers are not employees but persons broadly under the organizational remit, for example a contractor, a service provider or a client.
The page says that Article 4 of the AI Act does not entail an obligation to measure the knowledge of AI of employees. The page says that Article 4(1) specifies that the obligation does not require providers or deployers to guarantee any specific level of AI literacy of any individual.
The page says that, to comply with Article 4, providers and deployers of AI systems should consider at least four steps: a general understanding of AI within the organization, the role of the organization as provider or deployer, the risk of the AI systems provided or deployed, and AI literacy actions built on that analysis that account for differences in technical knowledge, experience, education and training and for the context of use.
The page says that organizations should adapt their AI literacy approach to their role and to the risks of the AI systems they provide or deploy, and that additional measures might be relevant if those systems are high-risk under Chapter III of the AI Act. The page says that there is no need for a certificate and that organizations can keep an internal record of trainings and/or other guiding initiatives.
The page says that there is no one size fits all when it comes to AI literacy, that no strict requirements or mandatory trainings are imposed, and that the requirements for a training depend on the concrete context. The page says that no specific governance structure is mandated to comply with Article 4 of the AI Act. The page says that a company whose employees use ChatGPT to write advertisement text or to translate text should inform them about the specific risks, for example hallucination.
The page says that the supervision and enforcement of Article 4 of the AI Act is not with the AI Office but under the remit of national market surveillance authorities. The page says that Article 4 of the AI Act entered into application on , so that the obligation to take measures to support the development of AI literacy of staff already applies. The page says that the national market surveillance authorities will start supervising and enforcing the rules as of .
The page says that national market surveillance authorities could impose penalties and other enforcement measures to sanction infringements of Article 4, on the basis of national laws. The page says that the AI Act does not create criminal offences or a right to compensation. The page says that replicating the practices collected in the Commission's living repository of AI literacy practices does not automatically grant presumption of compliance with Article 4.