Article 4 vs Article 50: training your team vs labeling your AI content

Two different obligations

The EU AI Act places two distinct obligations on companies that use AI tools at work:

• Article 4 is about your staff — ensuring they have sufficient AI literacy
• Article 50 is about the public — ensuring transparency when people interact with AI or consume AI-generated content

Article 4 — AI literacy

Who it applies to: Providers and deployers of AI systems. Any company whose staff use AI tools at work.

What it requires: Ensure a sufficient level of AI literacy among staff, accounting for their roles, the context of use, and the persons affected.

What you need: Training records, a written AI-use policy, role-based training materials.

Since when: February 2, 2025. Enforcement from August 2, 2026.

No certificate required. Internal records are sufficient.

Article 50 — Transparency

Who it applies to: Providers and deployers of AI systems that interact with persons or generate synthetic content.

What it requires:

1. Inform people when they are interacting with AI (chatbots, voice assistants)
2. Mark AI-generated outputs as detectable (images, audio, video)
3. Disclose deepfakes as artificially generated
4. Disclose AI-generated text published on matters of public interest (unless human editorial review applies)

What you need: Disclosure texts, labeling processes, placement guidance, records of what was labeled.

Since when: August 2, 2026.

Which one applies to you?

If your company...	Article 4	Article 50
Uses AI tools at work	✓	—
Runs customer-facing chatbots	✓	✓
Publishes AI-generated images/video	✓	✓
Publishes AI-generated text on public interest topics	✓	✓
Uses AI only internally (no external content, no chatbots)	✓	—

Most companies using AI tools at work need Article 4. Companies that also publish AI-generated content or run chatbots need both.

How to cover both

The Full Readiness Bundle (€249) includes:

• Literacy Pack (Article 4): training decks, record log, AI-use policy, rollout checklist
• Labeling Kit (Article 50): labeling guide, wording library, deepfake notices, workflow checklist
• Chatbot Disclosure Pack (Article 50): disclosure texts, UI placement guide, support FAQ
• Bonus: Auditor-ready index mapping every artifact to its article