Sector
AI literacy training for legal and professional services.
Drafting, review and research assistants now sit inside the tools your fee earners use, handling confidential client material. The Article 4 duty is to take measures so the people using them understand what the tools do and where they fail, and the profession's own duties make the confidentiality and accuracy risks acute.
Where AI is already in the work
- Drafting and review assistants inside document management and practice tools
- Legal and tax research tools that summarise and cite authorities
- Transcription and summarisation of client meetings
- Contract analysis and due diligence review platforms
- General-purpose chatbots used for correspondence and first drafts
What the AI Act asks of you
Article 4 applies to every organisation whose staff use an AI system at work, and it has applied since 2 February 2025. Supervision and enforcement by national authorities started on 2 August 2026. The duty is to take measures that support the development of AI literacy among your staff and the people using AI on your behalf, calibrated to the tools in use, the people using them and the context. The Commission's Q&A is explicit that no certificate is required and that organisations can keep an internal record of training and guidance.
Annex III point 8 lists AI intended to assist a judicial authority in researching and interpreting facts and the law as high-risk. That describes courts, not firms. The research and drafting tools a firm uses are not high-risk under that heading, which does not lessen the Article 4 duty and does not change your professional obligations on confidentiality and competence.
Article 4 covers staff and the other people dealing with AI on your behalf. The Commission's Q&A says that, in general, people working for a service provider or contractor need the appropriate AI skills to fulfil the task, the same as employees. Since July 2026 the duty is to take measures, not to guarantee any individual's level, so consultants and outsourced support using your tools belong inside the measure.
Which workshop fits
Firms usually start everyone on the half day, then use the full day to give partners and the people who administer research or review tools more depth, plus an acceptable-use policy that settles what client material may go into a tool.
This is general information about the EU AI Act, not legal advice. Enforcement is proportionate and case by case, and your sectoral regulator may issue guidance that applies to you.
Questions from this sector.
Are legal research tools high-risk AI under the AI Act?
No. Annex III point 8 covers AI intended to assist a judicial authority in researching and interpreting facts and the law. A firm's research tool is not in that category. Article 4 applies to it all the same.
Does Article 4 apply to a small firm?
Yes. Article 4 applies to every provider and deployer of AI systems, with no size threshold. The measures are proportionate to the tools in use and the people using them, so a small firm keeps a shorter record, but still keeps one.
What about client confidentiality?
The AI Act does not replace your professional and GDPR duties. What Article 4 adds is a duty to take measures, suited to each role, that help the people using a tool understand its specific risks. An acceptable-use policy for a firm should start with what must never go into a tool.
Related insights.
Scope
Does Article 4 cover contractors and agencies working for us?
Yes. Article 4 covers people who deal with AI on your behalf whether or not they are on your payroll, so your measures should reach contractors, service providers and agencies too, in proportion to the systems they touch.
Article 4
Do we need to test our employees' AI knowledge under Article 4?
No. Article 4 does not require you to test employees or have them pass an assessment. The duty is to take measures that support AI literacy, and the record of those measures is what matters.