EU AI Act Assessment Notebook

Use this notebook to classify an AI system, decide which EU AI Act obligations apply, and maintain a living evidence record for risk management, data governance, transparency, human oversight, and post-deployment monitoring.

This notebook is decision-driven. Do not mark a control complete unless the evidence exists, is linked, has an owner, and has been reviewed. Use Insufficient evidence when a claim cannot be proven.

This is an engineering and governance worksheet, not legal advice. Have counsel or your compliance function confirm the final classification, operator role, and obligations before launch.

1. Source and Version Control

Field Answer
Legal source reviewed Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Artificial Intelligence Act
Official source URL https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj/eng
Official Journal reference OJ L, 2024/1689, 12.7.2024
CELEX 32024R1689
Assessment version
Assessment owner
Legal reviewer
Engineering reviewer
Last reviewed
Next review trigger Launch / model change / data change / use-case change / incident / regulatory update

2. Decision Rules

Use these rules consistently across projects.

Allowed Decisions

Decision Meaning
Yes Applies and is supported by evidence
No Does not apply, with negative rationale and evidence
Unsure More analysis is needed
Insufficient evidence The assessor cannot prove the claim from available evidence
Not applicable The control does not apply to this system or role

Evidence Quality

Level Evidence quality Examples
E0 No evidence Verbal claim, blank field, unsupported assertion
E1 Weak evidence Unreviewed note, draft design, incomplete ticket
E2 Moderate evidence Linked documentation, config, code reference, policy, test plan
E3 Strong evidence Passing test result, audit log sample, signed review, approved DPIA/security review, production dashboard
E4 Independent evidence External audit, conformity assessment, legal sign-off, third-party certification

Hard Fail Conditions

If any condition is true, the final decision must be No-go or Conditional go with an explicit blocker.

Fail condition Applies? Evidence Owner Resolution date
Classification is Unsure or Insufficient evidence Yes / No
A prohibited AI practice may apply Yes / No
High-risk classification may apply but Articles 8-15 are not mapped Yes / No
No named accountable owner exists Yes / No
Risk register has unmitigated high-priority risks Yes / No
Required datasets lack owner, source, validation, or approval Yes / No
Human oversight is required but not implemented or tested Yes / No
Article 50 transparency likely applies but user disclosure is missing Yes / No
Monitoring, incident response, or rollback path is missing Yes / No
Legal/compliance review is required but not completed Yes / No

3. System Overview

Question Answer
System name
Business owner
Technical owner
Intended purpose
Users or deployers
Affected persons
Jurisdictions where used
Model provider and model version
Is this a general-purpose AI model, an AI system, or an AI-enabled product?
Does the system make, recommend, rank, score, classify, or generate content?
Can outputs influence access to money, employment, education, public services, health, safety, legal rights, or essential services?
What is explicitly out of scope?
Which system components generate, transform, retrieve, score, rank, or act on AI output?

4. Operator Role

Identify your role first. Obligations differ by role.

Role Decision Execution responsibility Evidence Evidence level Reviewer
Provider: you develop or place the system on the market or put it into service under your name Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Deployer: you use an AI system under your authority Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Product manufacturer Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Importer Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Distributor Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Authorised representative Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4

5. Risk Classification Decision

Do not start with Article 8. Start here.

Classification Decision Positive or negative justification Evidence Evidence level Reviewer
Prohibited AI practice Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
High-risk AI system under Article 6 and Annex III Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
High-risk because the AI system is a safety component of a regulated product Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Transparency-obligation system under Article 50 Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
General-purpose AI model obligation applies Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Limited or minimal-risk system Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4

Annex III High-Risk Screen

Annex III area Decision Positive or negative justification System component or workflow checked Evidence Evidence level Reviewer
Biometrics Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Critical infrastructure safety component Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Education and vocational training Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Employment, worker management, or access to self-employment Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Essential private services or public services and benefits Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Law enforcement Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Migration, asylum, or border control management Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4
Administration of justice or democratic processes Yes / No / Unsure / Insufficient evidence E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4

Classification Rationale

Question Answer
Why is the system high-risk, limited-risk, or out of scope?
Does the system materially influence a decision about a natural person?
Is the system only performing a narrow procedural, preparatory, or assistive task?
Could profiling occur?
What human decision or business process receives the output?
What would make the classification change later?
Which evidence would change this decision from Unsure to Yes or No?

6. Applicability Matrix

For high-risk systems, Articles 8-15 become the core engineering control set. For non-high-risk systems, use this matrix as a voluntary governance baseline and document which legal obligations still apply.

Article Control area Mandatory? Provider responsibility Deployer responsibility Owner Evidence Evidence level Status
8 Compliance with high-risk requirements Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
9 Risk management system Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
10 Data and data governance Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
11 Technical documentation Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
12 Record-keeping and logs Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
13 Transparency and instructions for use Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
14 Human oversight Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
15 Accuracy, robustness, and cybersecurity Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked
50 AI interaction, generated content, or deepfake transparency Yes / No / Voluntary / Not applicable E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Not started / Partial / Complete / Blocked

7. Article 8: Compliance Summary

Article 8 is not a standalone architecture diagram. It is the control that says a high-risk AI system must comply with the Section 2 requirements, taking into account intended purpose, state of the art, and the Article 9 risk management system.

Compliance question Answer
Which Articles 8-15 requirements apply?
Which requirements are handled by product safety, sectoral, or existing compliance processes?
Which requirements need AI-specific controls?
How is duplicate documentation avoided?
Who approves readiness before launch?
What evidence proves compliance?

System Component Control Map

Map controls to concrete architecture. A control that is not attached to a component is not implemented.

Component AI function Related obligation Risk IDs Data IDs Control IDs Test IDs Evidence Owner
Model call / retrieval / ranking / scoring / generation / tool use / logging / UI
Model call / retrieval / ranking / scoring / generation / tool use / logging / UI

Compliance Control Checklist

Control ID Control Required evidence Evidence level Status Blocker if incomplete?
C-001 Classification decision documented Classification memo, legal sign-off E3 / E4 Yes
C-002 Requirements mapped to system components Control matrix E2 / E3 Yes
C-003 Risk management system established Risk register, review cadence, mitigation evidence E2 / E3 Yes
C-004 Data governance established Data inventory, lineage, quality checks, bias review E2 / E3 Yes
C-005 Technical documentation maintained Architecture, model, data, eval, monitoring docs E2 / E3 Yes for high-risk
C-006 Logs and records available Logging design, retention policy, audit samples E2 / E3 Yes for high-risk
C-007 Deployers receive instructions User docs, limitations, misuse warnings E2 / E3 Yes where deployers exist
C-008 Human oversight implemented Oversight procedure, authority, escalation path, tested override E3 Yes where required
C-009 Accuracy, robustness, and cybersecurity tested Eval reports, red-team results, security review E3 Yes
C-010 Post-deployment monitoring live Dashboards, alert thresholds, incident process E3 Yes

8. Article 9: Risk Management System

The risk management system should be continuous and iterative across the full lifecycle. It must identify known and reasonably foreseeable risks, evaluate risk under intended use and foreseeable misuse, adopt mitigations, test against defined metrics, and update from post-deployment evidence.

Risk Scoring

Score Severity Likelihood Detectability
1 Negligible Rare Easy to detect before impact
2 Minor Unlikely Usually detected
3 Moderate Possible Sometimes detected
4 Major Likely Hard to detect
5 Severe Frequent Usually detected after impact

Risk priority = Severity x Likelihood x Detectability.

Risk Thresholds

Priority range Required decision
1-20 Acceptable with owner review
21-50 Mitigation required before launch or documented conditional acceptance
51-90 Launch blocker unless executive/legal acceptance is documented
91-125 No-go until risk is reduced

Risk Register

Each risk must name the system component and data/control links. Generic risks without component evidence should remain Draft.

Risk ID System-specific risk Component Affected persons Intended use or misuse? Severity Likelihood Detectability Priority Linked data IDs Linked control IDs Test IDs Residual risk Owner Evidence Status
R-001 Intended / Misuse Draft / Mitigating / Accepted / Blocked
R-002 Intended / Misuse Draft / Mitigating / Accepted / Blocked
R-003 Intended / Misuse Draft / Mitigating / Accepted / Blocked

Lifecycle Controls

Lifecycle stage Required activity Evidence
Design Identify hazards, affected groups, misuse paths, and legal constraints
Development Build mitigations into architecture, prompts, tools, data pipeline, and UX
Pre-launch Test against defined metrics and probabilistic thresholds
Launch Confirm residual risk acceptance and owner approval
Operation Monitor incidents, complaints, drift, and misuse
Change management Reassess after model, data, prompt, tool, policy, or workflow change
Retirement Disable access, retain required records, archive evidence

Risk Acceptance

Question Answer
Which residual risks remain?
Why are they acceptable?
Who has authority to accept them?
What risk threshold would block launch?
What signal would trigger rollback or suspension?
Which residual risks require legal, executive, or business acceptance?
Who signed off on residual risk acceptance?

9. Article 10: Data Governance

Article 10 is broader than "good data." It requires governance over design choices, data origin, preparation, assumptions, suitability, bias examination, bias mitigation, data gaps, representativeness, statistical properties, and contextual fit for the intended purpose.

Dataset Inventory

Data ID Dataset Purpose Owner Source Original collection purpose Processing/preparation Personal data? Special category data? Version Refresh cadence Review cadence Approved? Evidence
D-001 Training / Validation / Testing / Retrieval / Prompt examples / Monitoring Cleaning / labelling / chunking / embedding / filtering Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No / Conditional
D-002 Training / Validation / Testing / Retrieval / Prompt examples / Monitoring Cleaning / labelling / chunking / embedding / filtering Yes / No Yes / No Yes / No / Conditional

Data Governance Controls

Control Required question Evidence
Design choices Why were these data sources and features selected?
Collection origin Where did the data come from, and what was the original collection purpose?
Preparation How were data cleaned, labelled, enriched, aggregated, embedded, or filtered?
Assumptions What is the data assumed to measure or represent?
Suitability Is the data sufficient for the intended purpose and user population?
Bias examination What bias tests were run and what groups could be affected?
Bias mitigation What measures detect, prevent, or mitigate identified bias?
Data gaps What gaps remain and how are they handled?
Representativeness Does the data reflect the geographical, contextual, behavioural, or functional setting of use?
Feedback loops Could system outputs influence future inputs or decisions?

Data Quality Review

Data ID Completeness Error rate Freshness Representativeness Bias findings Validation process Reviewer Approved for use?
D-001 Yes / No / Conditional
D-002 Yes / No / Conditional

Special Category Data Check

Use this section if bias detection or correction requires special categories of personal data.

Requirement Answer Evidence
Can bias detection be fulfilled without special category data?
Are synthetic or anonymised alternatives insufficient?
Are technical limitations on reuse in place?
Are security and privacy-preserving measures in place?
Is access restricted and documented?
Is transfer to other parties prevented?
Is deletion tied to bias correction or retention expiry?
Are records of processing activities updated?

10. Traceability Matrix

This is the audit backbone. Every high or material risk must trace to data, components, controls, tests, monitoring, and evidence.

Risk ID Data IDs Component Control IDs Test IDs Monitoring signal Evidence Evidence level Residual risk decision Owner
R-001 E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Accepted / Blocked / Conditional
R-002 E0 / E1 / E2 / E3 / E4 Accepted / Blocked / Conditional

11. Technical Documentation

Maintain this as an evidence index rather than a narrative.

Evidence item Location Owner Last updated Status
Intended purpose and system description
Architecture diagram
Model and provider documentation
Data inventory and lineage
Prompt, retrieval, and tool design
Risk register
Evaluation report
Security review
Human oversight procedure
Monitoring and incident response plan
Deployer instructions or user documentation

12. Transparency and User Instructions

Question Answer
Do users know when they are interacting with an AI system?
Are generated outputs clearly labelled where required?
Are limitations, failure modes, and intended uses documented?
Are users told what not to use the system for?
Are escalation and human review paths visible?
Is the information accessible to users with disabilities?

13. Human Oversight

Oversight control Required answer
Which decisions require human review before action?
Which UI/API point presents the AI output to the reviewer?
Who performs oversight?
What training, competence, authority, and support do reviewers have?
Can reviewers override, ignore, stop, or escalate the system output?
What is the override workflow and where is it logged?
What evidence shows oversight actually happens?
What is the escalation SLA?
What sampled audit evidence proves reviewer behavior?

14. Accuracy, Robustness, and Cybersecurity

Test ID Control area Metric or test Threshold Latest result Evidence Pass/fail Owner
T-001 Accuracy for intended purpose Pass / Fail / Not run
T-002 Groundedness or citation support Pass / Fail / Not run
T-003 Robustness to ambiguous inputs Pass / Fail / Not run
T-004 Robustness to foreseeable misuse Pass / Fail / Not run
T-005 Prompt injection resistance Pass / Fail / Not run
T-006 Access control enforcement Pass / Fail / Not run
T-007 PII or secret leakage prevention Pass / Fail / Not run
T-008 Logging and auditability Pass / Fail / Not run
T-009 Availability and fallback Pass / Fail / Not run

15. Pre-Deployment Gate

Gate Required evidence Decision Blocker? Approver
Classification complete Classification matrix with reviewer Pass / Fail Yes
Role obligations mapped Provider/deployer obligation matrix Pass / Fail Yes
Risk register complete All material risks scored and assigned Pass / Fail Yes
Traceability complete Risk-data-control-test-evidence links Pass / Fail Yes
Data governance approved Dataset inventory and validation evidence Pass / Fail Yes
Human oversight tested Override/escalation test evidence Pass / Fail / Not applicable Yes where required
Transparency implemented User/deployer notice evidence Pass / Fail / Not applicable Yes where required
Monitoring and incident process ready Dashboard, alert, and rollback evidence Pass / Fail Yes
Residual risks accepted Named acceptance authority Pass / Fail Yes

16. Post-Deployment Monitoring

Signal Source/dashboard Owner Threshold Review cadence Response Feedback-loop action Evidence
User complaint rate
Unsupported answer rate
Human override rate
Escalation rate
Policy violation rate
Retrieval miss rate
Security event rate
Model or provider incident

17. Example Assessment: Enterprise HR RAG Chatbot

Field Example answer
Intended purpose Answer employee questions about approved HR policies using retrieval from controlled company documents
Likely classification Usually not high-risk if it only provides informational support and does not make or materially influence employment decisions
Classification caveat May become high-risk if used to rank employees, evaluate performance, allocate work based on traits, recommend promotion or termination, screen candidates, or otherwise affect employment relationship decisions
Article 50 transparency Likely relevant because users interact with an AI system
Core risks Hallucinated HR advice, outdated policy retrieval, unequal answers, confidential data leakage, overreliance, prompt injection
Core controls Approved document corpus, access control by employee role, grounded answers with citations, refusal for policy gaps, escalation to HR, monitoring, periodic evals

HR Chatbot Risk Mapping

Risk Impact Mitigation Evidence
Hallucination Wrong HR advice Retrieval grounding, citation requirement, answer refusal when source confidence is low
Outdated policy Employee acts on superseded rule Document approval workflow, versioning, stale-content alerts
Unequal or biased answer Inconsistent treatment of employees Regression tests across employee personas and protected-class-adjacent scenarios
Confidential data leakage Exposure of salary, medical, disciplinary, or personal data Role-based retrieval, PII redaction, access logs, least-privilege indexes
Overreliance AI answer treated as final HR decision Clear limitation text, escalation to HR, no automated decision authority
Prompt injection User or document manipulates system behavior Instruction hierarchy, document sanitisation, tool restrictions, adversarial evals

HR Chatbot Data Governance

Data source Control
HR policy documents Only approved policy versions enter the retrieval index
Employee handbook Versioned and reviewed by HR/legal
Benefits documentation Source owner validates freshness and jurisdiction
User questions and feedback Minimise retention, redact personal data, use only for approved monitoring and evals
Eval examples Include normal, ambiguous, sensitive, and adversarial HR scenarios

18. Final Assessment

Decision Answer
Final classification
Applicable obligations
Launch decision Go / Conditional go / No-go / Insufficient evidence
Open blockers
Accepted residual risks
Acceptance criteria used
Required monitoring after launch
Approval owner
Approval date
Legal/compliance review completed? Yes / No / Required before launch

19. Change Log

Date Change Risk impact Reassessment needed? Sections updated Owner
Yes / No