A grounded understanding of the world’s most substantial AI regulation, built for compliance, legal, and risk professionals.
Who this is for
- Compliance officers whose remit now includes AI
- In-house counsel advising on AI deployments
- Risk managers building AI risk into ERM
- Consultants whose clients ask about the Act
What you will be able to do
- Read the EU AI Act critically and locate the relevant articles for a given situation
- Classify an AI system’s risk tier and explain the consequences of that classification
- Identify the obligations that fall on providers, deployers, importers, and distributors
- Distinguish the requirements applying to general-purpose AI models
- Advise on the interaction between the Act and adjacent regimes (GDPR, DSA, sector regulation)
- Draft a defensible internal position on a specific AI use case
Syllabus
Each module comprises a mix of structured reading, worked examples, and applied exercises. Every programme concludes with an integrated written assessment marked against the published rubric.
Module 1. The shape of the Act
Origin, structure, and legislative intent. How to navigate the recitals, articles, and annexes. Timeline of applicability through 2027.
Module 2. Scope and definitions
What counts as an “AI system” and why the definition matters. Territorial and material scope. Exclusions and edge cases (research, national security, open-source).
Module 3. The risk-based approach
Prohibited practices, high-risk systems, limited-risk systems, minimal-risk systems. How risk classification actually works in practice, with worked examples.
Module 4. Obligations of providers
Risk management system, data governance, technical documentation, record-keeping, transparency, human oversight, accuracy and robustness. Conformity assessment.
Module 5. Obligations of deployers, importers, distributors
The full value chain. What each actor must do, and how obligations shift when a deployer substantially modifies a system.
Module 6. General-purpose AI (GPAI)
GPAI providers, systemic-risk designation, evaluation obligations, the AI Code of Practice.
Module 7. Governance, enforcement, and penalties
The AI Office, notified bodies, national competent authorities. Fines, remedies, and how enforcement is likely to unfold.
Module 8. The Act in practice
Integrated case study: work through a specific deployment from scope determination to compliance file, applying everything you have learned.
Assessment
Brief
Prepare a compliance memo (2,500 words maximum) for the general counsel of a fictional mid-sized organisation that has deployed a customer-facing AI chatbot. Your memo should classify the system’s risk tier, identify applicable obligations, and recommend a concrete compliance workstream.
Sample question
Your organisation uses an AI system that screens job applications by matching CV content against role requirements. A recruitment manager also uses the same tool to draft outreach messages to passive candidates. How would you classify each use, and what obligations follow?
Assessments are marked by a named human examiner against the four-dimension rubric: regulatory accuracy (30%), applied judgement (30%), artefact quality (25%), communication (15%). Pass at 60, distinction at 75.
Prerequisites
No prior AI or legal background required. Familiarity with reading regulatory or contractual documents is assumed.
Certification
On successful completion (pass mark 60), you receive a SAAII Certified Practitioner (CP) — EU AI Act Foundations credential. The credential is CPD-accredited, verifiable at thesaaii.com/verify, and forms one component toward higher-tier credentials. See the certification ladder for how it stacks.
Ready to enrol?
EU AI Act Foundations runs continuously with rolling enrolment. Founding-cohort discount (25%) applies to the first 100 enrolments across the whole programme portfolio.
Cohort licensing available from £395/seat (10+). Public sector, education, and registered charity: 20% discount. Instalment plans available for programmes at £495 and above. See For organisations and the FAQ for detail.