EU AI Act Compliance for SaaS: The Plain‑English Playbook
The EU AI Act is now live. If your product uses or provides general‑purpose AI, you’ll need high‑level training‑data transparency and basic safety controls. Treat this like SOC 2 for your models—practical, showable, and useful in sales.
Who this is for: Growth‑stage SaaS teams selling to mid‑market/enterprise, especially with EU users or customers.
What changed in the EU AI Act
Transparency: Providers must publish high‑level information about the training data used for general‑purpose models and explain how risks are managed.
Safety & bias controls: Put reasonable guardrails in place (input filtering, output moderation, human oversight for sensitive uses).
Enforcement & expectations: Penalties can be significant. More immediately, buyers will pause deals if you can’t explain your approach.
Reframe: Don’t chase perfection. Build a clear, auditable story you can hand to security reviewers and investors.
Practical tips to get ready fast
Tip 1 — Inventory your AI use
Map where and how you use models (features, internal tools, vendors). Note inputs (any PII or client data?), outputs, and who sees them.
Tip 2 — Publish a one‑page Model Card
In plain English: purpose, data sources (categories, not secrets), limitations, and how users report issues. Place it in your docs/help center.
Tip 3 — Add a Training‑Data Transparency Note
If you train models: describe the types of data used and how copyright or removal requests are handled. If you use vendor models, link to the vendor’s transparency page and explain your additional safeguards.
Tip 4 — Implement basic guardrails
Block clearly unsafe prompts, moderate risky outputs, and put a human in the loop for sensitive decisions. Log prompts/responses for review.
Tip 5 — Update your security packet
Add an “AI Governance & Transparency” section with your inventory, model card(s), transparency note, and controls. This speeds security reviews.
Tip 6 — Reuse vendor assurances
Leverage OpenAI/AWS/Anthropic transparency statements and SOC reports where applicable. Add your usage‑specific guardrails.
Tip 7 — Join a recognized code or framework
If available in your ecosystem, sign a code of practice or map to a simple framework. It increases buyer confidence without heavy legal work.
Tip 8 — Prep short answers for buyer questionnaires
Have concise responses ready for: training data categories, safety controls, human oversight, logging/retention, and incident handling.
Beginner FAQs
Does this apply outside the EU? If EU users touch your product—or your customers sell in the EU—expect AI Act‑style questions in vendor reviews. Being ready still helps sales.
Will we expose secret data? No. Share categories and governance, not proprietary datasets.
What if we only use vendor LLMs? That’s common. Link to vendor transparency, then describe your guardrails and oversight.
Who should own this? Product, engineering, and security together. Keep it small, visible, and practical.
What to do next
Book a Call: We’ll map your AI exposure and outline a practical, showable plan for security reviews.
Get a Risk Assessment: A short, scoped review to harden guardrails, publish model cards, and improve sales enablement.