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EU AI Act Checker for HR and Recruitment AI

Is AI used in recruitment high-risk under the EU AI Act?

Usually, yes. Annex III point 4 lists AI used to target job adverts, screen or filter applications and evaluate candidates, and AI used for promotion, termination, task allocation or monitoring workers. A system that profiles people is always high-risk. Emotion recognition at work has been banned since 2 February 2025. After the AI Omnibus, the high-risk obligations apply from 2 December 2027, not August 2026.

Many of the pages that rank for this still give 2 August 2026 as the deadline. The AI Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, in force 27 July 2026) moved the high-risk obligations for HR systems to 2 December 2027.

Tick what the system does and whether you build it or use it; the checker classifies it and lists the duties that follow.

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Built by Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Assessment and selection tools are his field; this sets out what the regulation now asks of them.

The checker

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Runs in your browser. Nothing you type is stored or sent anywhere.

An employer that puts its own name on a system or substantially changes it becomes a provider.
A UK or US company hiring in the EU is covered when the output is used there.

What does the system do? (tick all that apply)

Could it fall outside high-risk? (Article 6(3))

    What counts as HR AI under Annex III

    Point 4 of Annex III covers two groups. (a) AI intended for the recruitment or selection of people, in particular to place targeted job advertisements, analyse and filter applications, and evaluate candidates. (b) AI intended to make or influence decisions on the terms of work relationships, promotion and termination, to allocate tasks based on individual behaviour or personal traits, or to monitor and evaluate the performance and behaviour of workers. According to the Commission's draft classification guidelines (consulted on in July 2026), a human making the final decision does not by itself take a system out of the list.

    The way out, and why most hiring tools cannot use it

    Article 6(3) says an Annex III system is not high-risk if it poses no significant risk and only performs a narrow procedural task, improves the result of a completed human activity, detects patterns without replacing human assessment, or performs a preparatory task. But the same article ends with an override: a system that profiles natural persons is always high-risk. Ranking candidates, predicting performance and scoring assessments are profiling, so the exit is mostly for tools that handle documents rather than people.

    The timeline after the AI Omnibus

    DateWhat applies
    2 February 2025Prohibited practices, including emotion recognition at work and sensitive biometric categorisation; AI literacy
    2 August 2026Transparency obligations under Article 50 (chatbots, AI-generated content)
    2 December 2027High-risk obligations for Annex III systems, including all HR uses (was 2 August 2026)
    2 August 2028High-risk obligations for AI built into products covered by Annex I

    Most private employers are deployers, not providers, and do not have to carry out the fundamental rights impact assessment in Article 27; that applies to public bodies, private bodies providing public services, and credit and insurance uses. They do have to inform workers' representatives and the people affected.

    Before you rely on this

    What this will not tell you

    This is a structured reading of the Regulation, not legal advice. The Commission's guidelines on classifying high-risk systems were still in draft on 16 October 2026; when they are final they may change edge cases. National enforcement and the interaction with GDPR (including Article 22 on automated decisions) are not covered. Nothing you tick leaves your browser.

    Questions

    Questions people actually ask

    Is AI recruitment software high-risk under the EU AI Act?

    Yes if it is used to target job adverts, screen or filter applications, or evaluate candidates (Annex III point 4(a)), unless it falls within the narrow Article 6(3) exceptions, which do not apply to systems that profile people.

    When do the EU AI Act high-risk rules apply to HR?

    From 2 December 2027. The AI Omnibus, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 in force since 27 July 2026, moved Annex III obligations from 2 August 2026.

    Is emotion recognition in job interviews allowed?

    No. Inferring the emotions of people in the workplace, which includes candidates being interviewed, has been prohibited since 2 February 2025, except for medical or safety reasons.

    Does the EU AI Act apply to UK or US companies?

    Yes, when the system is used in the EU or its output is used there, for example when a UK or US company screens candidates for jobs in the EU.

    What must an employer using high-risk HR AI do?

    Use it as instructed, assign trained human oversight, check input data, monitor and report problems, keep logs for six months, inform workers' representatives and affected workers before use, and tell people when it is used in decisions about them.

    Where every rule comes from

    Sources

    Checked against the text of the law on 16 October 2026. Laws and notified rates change; if a source below has moved on, the source wins over this page.

    1. Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj
    2. AI Act Annex III (high-risk uses), consolidated reading: https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/annex/3/
    3. AI Act Article 6 (classification and the Article 6(3) exceptions): https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/article/6/
    4. European Commission: the AI Omnibus enters into force: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/news/ai-omnibus-enters-force
    5. European Parliament legislative train: Digital Omnibus on AI: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/package-digital-package/file-digital-omnibus-on-ai
    Citation

    Cite this tool

    Free to use and free to quote. If a figure here is useful in something you are writing, a link back is all that is asked.

    Muhammad Shahzeb Anwar, MSc Industrial and Organizational Psychology. EU AI Act HR and Recruitment Checker. Shahzeb Speaks. https://www.shahzebspeaks.com/eu-ai-act-hr-checker/

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    Checking the outcomes as well as the classification?

    Whatever the AI Act says about the system, its results still have to be fair. The free Adverse Impact Calculator compares selection rates against the four-fifths rule, and the NYC calculator adds the intersectional tables.

    Open the Adverse Impact Calculator