Under the original 2024 text, providers and deployers had to take measures to ensure, to their best extent, a sufficient level of AI literacy of their staff. In practice that wording was hard to pin down: what is “sufficient”, and how do you prove that a person has reached it? It gave rise to a market for training certificates, mandatory courses and exams that often promised more than the law actually asked for.
Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 – the Digital Omnibus on the AI Act, published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026 and in force since 27 July 2026 – replaced Article 4 in full. Under the new text, providers and deployers 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. In doing so they take into account technical knowledge, experience, education and training and the context in which the systems are used. The text makes clear that no specific level of competence of any individual has to be guaranteed.
Also new: the Commission and the Member States support providers and deployers in fostering AI literacy, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises. That does not change your own duty – but it may mean that more freely available materials, guidance or programmes become available for you to draw on.
In practice the duty is one of best efforts. It is not met by sending out a single video, and it is not breached because a trained person later still makes a mistake. What matters is that you take suitable measures for each role and context of use and that you can show it. If you can trace who received which measure and when, you have a solid basis for conversations with an authority, a customer running a supplier audit or your works council.