---
title: "The five roles of the AI Act"
url: https://euaiactaudit.com/en/roles
published: 2026-10-29T14:55:45.199Z
updated: 2026-10-29T14:55:45.199Z
summary: "Provider, deployer, importer, distributor and authorised representative in plain words. Your role decides your duties."
---

# The five roles of the AI Act

> Provider, deployer, importer, distributor and authorised representative in plain words. Your role decides your duties.

Under the AI Act your duties depend on your role for each AI system. One firm can hold different roles for different systems. This page explains the roles in general terms; it does not decide your role.

## When a deployer becomes a provider

A deployer, importer, distributor or other third party is treated as the provider of a high-risk system when it puts its own name or trademark on it, makes a **substantial modification** to it, or changes its intended purpose so that it becomes high-risk (Art. 25). A substantial modification also triggers a new conformity assessment (Art. 43(4)).

## Outside the EU

The Act also covers providers outside the EU who place systems on the EU market, and providers and deployers outside the EU whose AI output is used in the EU (Art. 2(1)).

:::note Role finder
A role finder that asks fixed questions is coming with the aiactaudit.ai tool. It will be a standardised self-assessment: you answer, you read the rule behind each result, you decide.
:::

## See all dates

Each role has duties that start on different dates.

## Sources

- [EUR-Lex, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202401689)
- [AI Act Service Desk, Article 2](https://ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu/en/ai-act/article-2)