AI literacy: satisfying Article 4
Art. 4 binds every provider and deployer since 2 February 2025 — answer the Academy's six questions, complete the programmes they assign, and keep a twelve-month record that counts as evidence.
Article 4 is the obligation people forget, and it is already in force — since 2 February 2025. It applies to every provider and deployer, whatever the risk tier of their systems: you must take measures to ensure, as far as possible, a sufficient level of AI literacy among your staff and the other people dealing with the operation and use of your AI systems on your behalf.
What "sufficient" means
It is proportionate, not a fixed curriculum. The Act points to people's technical knowledge, experience, education and training, the context the system is used in, and the persons it is used on. A data scientist building a model and a caseworker using its output need very different things — but both need something, and so does the person answering the phone about it.
Where the work happens
The Academy (under Prove it) is the in-app Art. 4 screen, and it works per person:
- Six questions about what you do — operate a system, review its decisions, handle the personal data it uses, take governance decisions about adopting it, and so on. Answer honestly rather than generously; the answers are filed against your account with the date.
- Programmes are assigned automatically from the answers. Everyone gets the baseline, because Art. 4 binds the whole organisation; each yes adds the programme that competency needs.
- Work through the programmes in the training player, and take the assessment where a programme has one.
- Your record shows what is assigned, what is complete, and when it lapses.
Org admins and compliance managers get a Team tab — who is current — listing who is complete, expiring or never started. They see standing, not answers.
The record, and when it lapses
A completed record is valid for twelve months from completion. A fortnight before it runs out you are told, by email and in the app; if it lapses you are told again. The clock runs from the earliest of your completions, not the latest — the oldest one is what a regulator would look at. Your own standing also shows under Organisation → AI literacy.
How it counts
The Art. 4 obligation on the organisation lives in the Scope phase of every system's journey and is satisfied once, for the workspace. The Academy's records are the evidence behind it: the dated needs assessment, the completions and the team view. Policies carries the AI-literacy programme as an organisation-scope record with its owner and next review.
A completed programme is not a certification, and not a legal opinion that your organisation satisfies Art. 4. It is a dated record that the training happened and who did it. Whether it is sufficient for your particular use of AI remains your organisation's judgement.