EU AI Act Article 26(2) — Deployer duty to assign human oversight to competent, trained and authorised persons
Deployers must assign human oversight of a high-risk AI system to named natural persons who have the competence, training, authority and support the role requires
Where this comes from
Provision: Article 26(2) — Deployer duty to assign human oversight to competent, trained and authorised persons
Instrument: EU Artificial Intelligence Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689)
Citation: Article 26(2), with Article 26(3), Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
Text version: Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), OJ L, 12.7.2024
Checked against the source: 2 September 2026
Who it applies to
High-risk AI deployer in scope — all of these:
- Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity
- AI Act role is Deployer or we provide some AI systems and deploy others
Annex III high-risk area (Art. 6(2)) — any one of these:
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Biometrics
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Critical infrastructure
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Education and vocational training
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Essential public services
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Creditworthiness
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Insurance
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Law enforcement
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Migration, asylum and border control
- Annex III high-risk areas includes Administration of justice and democratic processes
…unless:
- AI Act scope exclusion is used exclusively for military, defence or national-security purposes or developed and used solely for scientific research and development
- Art. 2(3): the Regulation 'does not apply to AI systems where and in so far as they are placed on the market, put into service, or used with or without modification exclusively for military, defence or national security purposes'. (AI Act Art. 2(3))
- Art. 2(6): the Regulation 'does not apply to AI systems or AI models, including their output, specifically developed and put into service for the sole purpose of scientific research and development'. (AI Act Art. 2(6))
- Art. 6(3): an Annex III system is NOT high-risk where it does not pose a significant risk of harm to health, safety or fundamental rights, including by not materially influencing the outcome of decision making — which applies where the system (a) performs... (AI Act Art. 6(3))
Scope in the source's own terms
- Art. 2(1): the AI system is placed on the market or put into service in the Union, or the provider/deployer is established in the Union, or the output produced by the system is used in the Union
- Art. 6(2): the AI system falls within an area listed in Annex III and is therefore high-risk, no documented Art. 6(3) derogation applying (and it is ALWAYS high-risk where it performs profiling of natural persons)
- Art. 26(1), read with Art. 3(4): the actor is a 'deployer' — a natural or legal person using an AI system under its authority, other than in the course of a personal non-professional activity
What engineering work it implies
- AI Literacy Programme (Role Matrix + Training Record)Covers part of it
A lightweight process pattern for Article 4: a role matrix saying what each role must understand, a training record per person, and a gate that ties the oversight...
- Human Oversight Gate (Review Queue with Stop and Override)Covers part of it
A decision state machine that holds an automated decision as a proposal until a designated, competent reviewer releases, overrides or stops it — with an audit of who...
Sample acceptance criteria Landfall generates for this obligation:
- A human reviewer can inspect the inputs, the output and the rationale for an automated decision before it takes effect
- The reviewer is shown the system's capacities and limits and its declared accuracy, so disagreeing is a real option (Art. 14(4)(a), (c))
- The reviewer can decide not to use the output, or to disregard, override or reverse it, without engineering intervention (Art. 14(4)(d))
- A stop control halts the system, and it is reachable by the assigned person without a deploy (Art. 14(4)(e))
- Oversight is assigned to named natural persons who have the competence, training and authority the role requires (Art. 26(2))
Evidence an auditor expects
- Process recordDocument reviewReviewed on each change of assignee, and annually
Human-oversight assignment record naming the responsible natural persons
Record naming each natural person assigned oversight of the system, the authority delegated to them (expressly including authority to disregard, override, reverse or stop), and the support made available. Art. 26(2) requires competence, training AND authority together — an assignment without authority does not satisfy it
- Training recordDocument review
Competence and training record for the assigned overseers
Per-person training record covering the system's capabilities and limitations as stated in the Art. 13 instructions for use, the Art. 14 oversight measures the provider specified, and automation bias
Questions people ask
- Does EU AI Act Article 26(2) — Deployer duty to assign human oversight to competen… apply to my service?
- It applies when Service deploys AI systems in a professional capacity; AI Act role is Deployer or we provide some AI systems and deploy others; and at least one of: Annex III high-risk areas includes Biometrics; Annex III high-risk areas includes Critical infrastructure; Annex III high-risk areas includes Education and vocational training; Annex III high-risk areas includes Employment and worker management; Annex III high-risk areas includes Essential public services; Annex III high-risk areas includes Creditworthiness; Annex III high-risk areas includes Insurance; Annex III high-risk areas includes Law enforcement; Annex III high-risk areas includes Migration, asylum and border control; Annex III high-risk areas includes Administration of justice and democratic processes. It does not apply where AI Act scope exclusion is used exclusively for military, defence or national-security purposes or developed and used solely for scientific research and development.
- When does this become enforceable?
- EU AI Act Article 26(2) — Deployer duty to assign human oversight to competen… is enforceable from 2 August 2026. Its current status is: in force.
- What evidence does an auditor expect?
- Human-oversight assignment record naming the responsible natural persons; Competence and training record for the assigned overseers.
Find out whether this one lands on you
Landfall's pre-scan answers the applicability question above for your product in minutes, then turns every obligation that applies into traceable engineering tickets with a citation chain your auditors can follow.
Not legal advice. Landfall maps regulatory obligations to engineering work for planning purposes. Its verdicts are not legal advice and create no attorney-client relationship — verify with qualified counsel before relying on them.