What is the EU AI Act?
On 1 August 2024, the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (“the EU AI Act" or “the act”) entered into force across all 27 EU Member States.
The EU AI Act puts obligations on companies offering and using AI for certain purposes, including some tasks and use cases in recruitment processes.
Its requirements become applicable in stages, as shown here.
Certain requirements, including the rules on prohibited AI practices, AI literacy and the transparency obligations applicable to certain AI systems, already apply. Providers and deployers of AI systems must also take appropriate measures to support the development of AI literacy among relevant staff and other persons using AI systems on their behalf. Teamtailor has assessed its current AI systems against the EU AI Act requirements that currently apply and has implemented measures designed to meet those requirements.
The requirements applicable to high-risk AI systems listed in Annex III, including certain employment and recruitment systems, will apply from 2 December 2027.
Teamtailor is ISO/IEC 42001 certified since August 2026 and has implemented an Artificial Intelligence Management System (AIMS) to support our AI governance. Through this work, we have established governance processes, technical documentation, risk management practices, human oversight mechanisms, monitoring capabilities and operational procedures that support our compliance with the EU AI Act and our preparations for the requirements applicable to high-risk AI systems.
The EU AI Act prohibits certain AI practices irrespective of whether an AI system is classified as high-risk. Teamtailor does not intend its AI features to be used for prohibited practices under the EU AI Act. We assess relevant features against these prohibitions as part of our AI governance process.
To whom does the EU AI Act apply?
Whether a company is subject to the EU AI Act, and what obligations a company will have, depends on four main factors:
Does the technology used or offered by the company fall under the EU AI Act’s definition of an ‘AI system’? The EU AI Act contains a specific definition of an AI System. It needs to be reviewed carefully so that you adapt to the rules of the EU AI Act (only) in relation to all systems and services that actually fall under this definition.
What role will the company have when using or offering the technology? The EU AI Act assigns different roles to the organisations in the AI value chain, including s providers, deployers, importers, and distributors, with different responsibilities depending on their role. It will be important to define the role of every company in the value chain of creating, further developing and using an AI system.
What level of risk is related to the AI system? The EU AI Act follows a risk-based approach and distinguishes between four broad levels of risk: unacceptable risk, high risk, transparency risk, and minimal/no risk.
Does the AI system fall under a specific category of AI systems? For example, the EU AI Act contains strict obligations on general-purpose AI; on general-purpose AI systems that can cause a systemic risk; and specific transparency obligations for certain AI Systems.
The obligations that apply depend on, among other things:
whether a feature constitutes an AI system under the Act;
Teamtailor's and the customer's respective roles;
the intended purpose and classification of the system, including whether it falls within a high-risk use case; and
whether specific rules, such as the prohibited practices or transparency provisions, apply.
Certain AI features used in recruitment and selection are classified as high-risk under the EU AI Act. This includes AI features intended to analyse or filter job applications or evaluate candidates. Whether a particular AI-based feature is classified as high-risk depends on its intended purpose and how the relevant classification rules apply to that feature.
What does the EU AI Act mean for recruiting with Teamtailor?
Teamtailor offers AI-based features in our service. Most of those features are collected in our Co-pilot, which can be used by any customer who chooses to activate them.
Teamtailor uses third-party AI models and services in connection with certain AI-based features, including general-purpose AI models provided by OpenAI. Depending on the relevant feature and AI value chain, Teamtailor may act as the provider of the AI system made available through the Teamtailor Service, while our underlying technology providers may have separate obligations under the EU AI Act. Further information about subprocessors used for relevant features is available in our subprocessor documentation.
Where Teamtailor acts as provider, we are responsible for assessing and complying with the obligations applicable to that AI system.
Certain Teamtailor AI features are classified as high-risk AI systems based on their intended purpose and functionality, as reflected in our current assessment below. When providing these features, Teamtailor will comply with the obligations on providers of high-risk AI systems under the Act. This includes, for example, keeping detailed documentation of the features; providing instructions for use; establishing risk and quality management systems; performing conformity assessment and post-market surveillance; and registering the AI system in an EU database.
Certain AI features may also be subject to specific transparency requirements under the EU AI Act. These requirements depend on the functionality and use of the relevant AI system. Teamtailor assesses its features against the applicable transparency requirements and implements appropriate transparency measures where required
Features that are not classified as high-risk may nevertheless be subject to other provisions of the EU AI Act, including applicable AI literacy, prohibited practices, and transparency requirements.
And, since we are continuously developing the Teamtailor service, it’s possible that our current features will function and look different than they do today, when the relevant rules of the Act become applicable. It’s also likely that other, additional AI-based features are available at that point.
Teamtailor maintains a documented process for identifying and assessing AI-based functionality against applicable EU AI Act requirements. Assessments are reviewed when relevant functionality, intended purpose, or underlying AI technology materially changes. This is also part of our ISO 42001 certification and framework.
Here is a list of our current features and our corresponding assessments.
We have also summarized the principles that we live by in developing and providing AI-based features in these Responsible AI Principles.
What will the EU AI Act mean for Teamtailor’s customers?
Depending on which AI-based features you choose to use in the Teamtailor service, you will have obligations under the EU AI Act, as a so-called deployer.
For example, you will be expected to provide particular information to your candidates about how you use the AI features; ensure there is human oversight of the features, and that the individuals providing this human oversight have the necessary competence, training and authority.
To ensure compliance, we recommend that you:
Review the information we provide about our different AI-based features, so that you are well aware of how they can help in your recruitment processes, and how they work.
Consider which of our current AI-based features you already use, or would like to use, and how. For example, will you be relying only on the feature for a particular task, or will you instruct your recruiters to handle certain aspects manually?
In light of this, make your own assessment of how your use of our AI features will influence your candidates’ access to employment. This analysis can be tricky, so you should consult with your legal counsel if you have questions.
This will help you understand your current obligations and prepare for the additional requirements that will become applicable to relevant high-risk AI systems.
DISCLAIMER: This text is not legal advice, but created for informative purposes only. We always recommend that you make your own legal assessments and decisions.
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