What does the Article 9 risk management system require from us?

Candidate recommendation that automatically becomes a decision

An employer uses a system that ranks applicants and recommends a candidate to hire. In one setup a recruiter weighs that recommendation in their own assessment; in the other the outcome is applied automatically and a candidate is rejected without anyone looking at it.

Provenance: The Commission draft guidelines of 19 May 2026 address this case when determining whether an application falls under Annex III. The document is a consultation version: non-binding and not yet final.

Assess a recruitment system on its intended purpose rather than on whether a recruiter reviews the output, because adding or removing human involvement does not change its high-risk classification.

Ontwerprichtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI, 19 mei 2026, bijlage over Bijlage III

A CV filter that ranks applicants

An employer has an external recruitment system score and rank every incoming application, after which recruiters only review the top twenty percent by hand. The vendor puts the system on the market under its own name, and the employer uses it in its own selection process.

Provenance: The Commission draft guidelines of 19 May 2026 address this case when determining whether an application falls under Annex III. The document is a consultation version: non-binding and not yet final.

Recruiters keeping the final say does not help you, because once the system scores or ranks applicants and thereby shapes the shortlist it stays high-risk and no exemption applies.

Ontwerprichtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI, 19 mei 2026, bijlage over Bijlage III

Application file handling at an educational institution

An educational institution uses AI for application file handling: indexing, searching, text and speech processing, translation of documents submitted with applications, and extracting, transforming and organising the collected data into a usable format.

Provenance: The Commission draft guidelines of 19 May 2026 address this case when determining whether an application falls under Annex III. The document is a consultation version: non-binding and not yet final.

Indexing, searching, translating and reorganising application files remains preparatory work, as long as the system leaves the substantive judgment on the application entirely to the institution.

Ontwerprichtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI, 19 mei 2026, bijlage over Bijlage III

System that checks a human decision or design and provides a substantially different solution

An AI system checks a decision, plan or construction made by a human and then provides a substantially different solution.

Provenance: The Commission draft guidelines of 19 May 2026 address this case when determining whether an application falls under Annex III. The document is a consultation version: non-binding and not yet final.

Ask whether your system refines or replaces the human work, because delivering a substantially different solution is not an improvement and rules out reliance on Article 6(3)(b).

Ontwerprichtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI, 19 mei 2026, bijlage over Bijlage III

Integrating AI Act requirements into existing risk and quality systems

According to the draft guidelines of 19 May 2026, which are expressly published as a draft for stakeholder feedback and have no binding force, the AI Act provides mechanisms to reduce the compliance burden for economic operators. The draft guidelines cite Article 8(2) AI Act on the interplay with sectoral legislation, Article 9(10) AI Act on risk management and Article 17(3) AI Act on quality management, which allow economic operators to add, where necessary and appropriate, an assessment of AI-specific risks to already existing risk and quality management systems. Article 40 AI Act further requires that harmonised standards under the AI Act be consistent with standards developed under the Annex I harmonisation legislation. The draft guidelines state that these mechanisms enable economic operators to meet both the AI Act and the harmonisation legislation within a single compliance framework, thereby avoiding duplication of effort while maintaining a high level of protection of health, safety and fundamental rights.

Concept-richtsnoeren Annex I, punten (61) en (62)

Article 6 has two separate routes to high-risk

The European Commission's draft guidelines on the classification of high-risk AI of 19 May 2026, which are expressly non-binding, state in paragraph (7) that an AI system is high-risk in two scenarios: first, where it is intended to be used as a safety component of a product, or is itself a product, covered by the Union harmonisation legislation listed in Annex I and required to undergo third-party conformity assessment; and second, where it falls within one of the use cases in the areas listed in Annex III. Paragraph (448) of those same draft guidelines notes that the Article 113 application dates have been postponed by the AI Omnibus to 2 December 2027 for the Article 6(2) route and 2 August 2028 for the Article 6(1) route.

Concept-richtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI (19 mei 2026), hoofdstuk Algemene beginselen, sectie II, randnummer (7); sectie V, randnummer (448)

Broadly positioned and general purpose AI systems: a disclaimer is not enough

According to the non-binding draft guidelines of 19 May 2026 on the classification of high-risk AI, paragraph (12) provides that where the instructions for use, contractual arrangements, terms of service, usage policy, promotional and sales materials or technical documentation present the AI system as broadly applicable across a generality of contexts and functions, and do not consistently limit its application or exclude high-risk uses, the system's intended purpose will be deemed to also encompass high-risk use cases and therefore qualify as high-risk. Under these draft guidelines this applies in particular where such uses are feasible and reasonably foreseeable given the system's functionalities and capabilities. The same paragraph states that merely asserting, for example in the terms of service, that high-risk uses are excluded is insufficient where the provider's overall presentation, examples or product positioning effectively provides for or promotes such uses, and that any limitations of use must be described clearly, concretely and coherently across all materials.

Concept-richtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI (19 mei 2026), hoofdstuk Algemene beginselen, sectie II.2, randnummer (12)

High-risk does not mean prohibited, and not high-risk does not mean permitted

The draft guidelines of 19 May 2026 on the classification of high-risk AI, which are not binding, state in paragraph (3) that the fact an AI system is listed as an example in these guidelines does not mean its use should automatically be considered lawful, since such use would still need to comply with other applicable legislation, and in paragraph (4) that the scope of these guidelines is limited to whether an AI system is high-risk or not. In the Annex III chapter of this draft, paragraph (68) states that classifying systems as high-risk under Article 6(2) does not mean their use is prohibited, but that those systems are subject to appropriate requirements. Paragraphs (82) and (83) of this draft explain the wording in so far as their use is permitted under relevant Union or national law and state that falling within a use case does not necessarily mean the system may lawfully be used in those cases, that in addition to the prohibitions other provisions of Union or national law may restrict use, and that under Article 2(9) the AI Act applies without prejudice to rules on consumer protection, product safety and data protection.

Concept-richtsnoeren classificatie hoog-risico AI (19 mei 2026), hoofdstuk Algemene beginselen, randnummers (3) en (4); hoofdstuk Bijlage III, randnummer (68) en sectie 2.6, randnummers (82) en (83)

ISO/IEC 23894: guidance on risk management for AI

ISO/IEC 23894:2023 (Information technology: Artificial intelligence: Guidance on risk management) was published in February 2023 and is the first international standard dealing specifically with risk management for AI. It is non-prescriptive and built on the ISO 31000 structure. The text was adopted by CEN-CENELEC as EN ISO/IEC 23894:2024. It is not cited in the Official Journal and therefore confers no presumption of conformity under Article 40 of the AI Act. The deliverable intended to do so for Article 9 is prEN 18228.

prEN 18228: AI risk management for high-risk systems

prEN 18228 (AI risk management) is the JTC 21 deliverable under M/613 intended to confer presumption of conformity with Article 9 of the AI Act: the risk management system that providers of high-risk AI systems must establish, implement, document and maintain across the full lifecycle. The public Enquiry ran until 30 July 2026. The standard has not yet been published as an EN and is not cited in the Official Journal. The prEN designation means it is a draft text.

ISO/IEC 5259 series: data quality for analytics and machine learning

The ISO/IEC 5259 series (Artificial intelligence: Data quality for analytics and machine learning) comprises five parts: part 1 (overview, terminology and examples), part 2 (data quality measures), part 3 (data quality management requirements and guidelines) and part 4 (data quality process framework), all published in 2024, plus part 5 (data quality governance framework), published in February 2025. CEN-CENELEC has adopted parts as European standards, including EN ISO/IEC 5259-4:2025 and EN ISO/IEC 5259-3:2025. No part is cited in the Official Journal, so no presumption of conformity under Article 40 arises. The deliverable intended to do so for Article 10 is prEN 18284.

prEN 18284: quality and governance of datasets in AI

prEN 18284 (Artificial intelligence: Quality and governance of datasets in AI) is the JTC 21 deliverable under M/613 for Article 10 of the AI Act, which sets requirements for the training, validation and testing datasets of high-risk AI systems. As at June 2026 the deliverable was at the drafting stage. It has not yet been published as an EN and is not cited in the Official Journal.