Direct answer
What obligations does the deployer have under Article 86 of the AI Act?
Your question is about Article 86: right to an explanation of a decision. That obligation applies today. Whether your system actually falls under it depends on conditions you assess yourself.
You determine this yourself
- Applies where a deployer takes a decision about a natural person on the basis of the output of a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, with the exception of point 2 of that Annex, and that decision produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects that person in a way they consider to have an adverse impact on their health, safety or fundamental rights.
- Paragraph 2 excludes the right for AI systems where exceptions from, or restrictions to, that obligation follow from Union or national law in compliance with Union law. Paragraph 3 further limits the right to cases where it is not otherwise provided for under Union law, which makes the boundary with Article 22 GDPR a case-by-case question.
First step: Set up how you handle a request for an explanation.
Article 86 of the AI Act covers right to an explanation of a decision. A person affected by a decision that a deployer takes on the basis of the output of a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III may request an explanation of the role of that system in the decision-making procedure and of the main elements of the decision taken. The duty sits with the deployer. This obligation has applied since 2 August 2026.
This applies now
Your first actions
- Set up how you handle a request for an explanation. Ensure your complaints or objections desk recognises a request for an explanation of an AI-supported decision, that it can be traced per decision which system in which version contributed to it, and that someone is designated to give the explanation.
Record this
- Register of requests for an explanation
General interpretation, not legal advice. Checked against Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 and the Digital Omnibus (EU) 2026/1744; the official source remains authoritative.
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