Do you have to tell workers before you use AI at work?

When AI changes how work is allocated, scored or cut, the first question from staff and unions is whether anyone had to tell them. For high-risk systems the EU AI Act answers it directly, and it answers it before the system is switched on, not after.

The duty in Article 26(7)

Before putting into service or using a high-risk AI system at the workplace, a deployer who is an employer must inform workers' representatives and the affected workers that they will be subject to the use of the system. Where applicable, that information follows the rules and procedures of Union and national law and practice on informing workers and their representatives. The verified wording.

Which systems it covers

The duty is tied to high-risk systems. In employment that is the list in Annex III, point 4: systems used to recruit and select, to decide on terms, promotion or termination, to allocate tasks based on behaviour or traits, and to monitor and evaluate performance and behaviour. Is your HR software high-risk?

It sits on top of national rules, not instead of them

The AI Act does not stop the EU or member states from keeping or introducing rules more favourable to workers on the use of AI by employers, or from encouraging collective agreements that go further. The verified wording.

In practice that means the AI Act notice is the floor. Where national law gives works councils or unions a consultation right over new technology or monitoring, that procedure still applies, and the AI Act information is delivered through it.

What else people are owed

Informing the workforce is one of several duties for a deployer of a high-risk system:

• people the system makes or helps make decisions about must be told they are subject to it
• a person affected by a decision based on its output, with legal or similarly significant effects they consider adverse to their health, safety or fundamental rights, can ask for a clear and meaningful explanation of the role the system played and the main elements of the decision
• oversight must sit with people who have the competence, training and authority to act on it

Deployer duties.

From when

The high-risk rules for Annex III systems, including Article 26, apply from 2 December 2027 under the dates as amended in 2026. The full timeline.

Where this fits

The AI Act at Work includes both notices as forms, the one to workers and their representatives and the one to the people a system decides about, along with the response to a request for an explanation and the complaints log that sits behind them.