Is the AI we use in Workday covered by the EU AI Act?

Which Workday uses are high-risk?

• The ones point 4 of Annex III lists.
• Chapter III, Sections 1, 2 and 3, which hold the high-risk requirements and the deployer duties of Article 26, apply from 2 December 2027 for systems classified as high-risk under Article 6(2) and Annex III, with the exception of Article 6(5) (Article 113, third paragraph, point (c), as replaced by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744).
• Point 4 of Annex III use by use: is HR software high-risk under the EU AI Act?.

• Point 4 of Annex III: AI systems intended to be used for the recruitment or selection of natural persons, in particular to place targeted job advertisements, to analyse and filter job applications and to evaluate candidates, and AI systems intended to be used to make decisions affecting terms of work-related relationships, the promotion or termination of work-related contractual relationships, to allocate tasks based on individual behaviour or personal traits or characteristics or to monitor and evaluate the performance and behaviour of persons in such relationships.
• Article 6(3): by derogation from Article 6(2), an Annex III system is not considered high-risk where it does not pose a significant risk of harm to the health, safety or fundamental rights of natural persons, including by not materially influencing the outcome of decision making. That applies where any one of four conditions is fulfilled: the system is intended to perform a narrow procedural task; it is intended to improve the result of a previously completed human activity; it is intended to detect decision-making patterns or deviations from prior decision-making patterns and is not meant to replace or influence the previously completed human assessment, without proper human review; or it is intended to perform a preparatory task to an assessment relevant for the purposes of the use cases listed in Annex III. An Annex III system that performs profiling of natural persons is always considered high-risk, and a provider who considers an Annex III system not high-risk documents that assessment before placing it on the market or putting it into service, and is subject to registration under Article 49(2) (Article 6(4)).

What does the employer owe for a high-risk HR feature?

These three of the Article 26 deployer duties, and the right to an explanation in Article 86. Every paragraph, with its exceptions: what a deployer owes under Article 26.

• Article 26(1) and (2): take appropriate technical and organisational measures to use the system in accordance with its instructions for use, and assign human oversight to natural persons who have the necessary competence, training and authority, as well as the necessary support.
• Article 26(7): before putting into service or using a high-risk AI system at the workplace, a deployer that is an employer informs the workers’ representatives and the affected workers that they will be subject to it, where applicable under the rules and procedures of Union and national law and practice on informing workers.
• Article 26(11): a deployer of an Annex III system that makes or assists in making decisions related to natural persons informs them that they are subject to its use, without prejudice to Article 50. For high-risk systems used for law enforcement purposes, Article 13 of Directive (EU) 2016/680 applies.
• Article 86(1): an affected person subject to a decision taken by the deployer on the basis of the output from a high-risk AI system listed in Annex III, with the exception of systems listed under point 2, which produces legal effects or similarly significantly affects that person in a way that they consider to have an adverse impact on their health, safety or fundamental rights, has the right to obtain from the deployer clear and meaningful explanations of the role of the AI system in the decision-making procedure and the main elements of the decision taken. The right does not apply where exceptions from, or restrictions to, it follow from Union or national law in compliance with Union law, and it applies only to the extent it is not otherwise provided for under Union law (Article 86(2) and (3)).

What applies to every use?

• Article 4 on AI literacy, and the prohibitions, including emotion inference at the workplace.
• Chapters I and II, which hold Articles 4 and 5, apply from 2 February 2025 (Article 113, third paragraph, point (a), as replaced by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744).
• That point keeps two later dates: Article 5(1), first subparagraph, points (ba) and (bb) apply from 2 December 2026, as do Article 5(1a) and (1b).

• Article 4(1), as replaced by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744: providers and deployers of AI systems take measures to support the development of AI literacy of their staff and of other persons dealing with the operation and use of AI systems on their behalf, taking into account their technical knowledge, experience, education and training and the context of use, and considering the persons or groups of persons on whom the systems are to be used. The obligation does not require them to guarantee any specific level of AI literacy of any individual.
• Article 5(1), first subparagraph, point (f): placing on the market, putting into service for this specific purpose or using AI systems to infer the emotions of a natural person in the areas of workplace and education institutions is prohibited, except where the use is intended to be put in place or into the market for medical or safety reasons.

What about the company that makes the tool?

• Whoever provides the AI system or the general-purpose AI model behind a tool carries the provider’s duties, and they are that provider’s own.
• This page says nothing about how any vendor meets them: nothing here was read from a vendor’s own terms, and the duties above are yours whatever those terms say.