Background

Cities and regions across Europe lead the way in the innovative and responsible use of AI, from assistants for city staff to interactive chatbots for residents and more. When assessing the systems’ impacts on local communities, they are facing complex legal requirements at the EU level: As the EU AI Act does not distinguish between public and private AI users but rather uses a risk-based approach to classify AI systems, cities face important compliance duties, particularly for high-risk use cases.

The EU acknowledges the need to help stakeholders with legal compliance: However, the support announced in the form of guidelines on high-risk systems under the AI Act, or tools for public administrations under the Apply AI Strategy, suffers from repeated delays. Existing mechanisms such as the AI Act Service Desk are often not tailored to public authorities . The expected clarity and visibility are further hampered by the ongoing revision of AI rules under the EU simplification agenda and by delaying high-risk obligations altogether, as well as by the insufficient guidance from national authorities.

Objective

When implementing AI, cities need legal certainty to protect themselves from liability and to preserve trust at the local level. Some cities are already taking the initiative, for example, by deploying fundamental rights impact assessments and algorithm transparency registers. The cities of Amsterdam and Helsinki are using practical tools to identify if AI use cases have a high-risk level. With this online session, the Living-in.EU Legal WG aims to allow cities to:

• exchange on their needs and challenges related to AI Act compliance,
• discuss concrete use cases of high-risk AI systems in cities and their implications,
• and share hands-on practices and tools for AI governance and compliance with EU AI rules.

This webinar builds on previous efforts within the Living-in.EU Legal WG to support public authorities on EU AI rules: These include a previous webinar on legal implications of the AI Act and representing cities’ and regions’ needs by replying to the EU consultation on the Apply AI Strategy.

Agenda

Wednesday 8 April 2026, 14:00-15:30 CEST

1. Introduction and setting the scene (10 min)

2. Guided discussion: Addressing cities’ legal challenges and compliance needs under the AI Act (15 min)

3. Best practices from cities on managing high-risk AI systems

• AI risk level classification in Amsterdam (20 min): Lisette Kalshoven (Team Leader Digital Rights) and Xadya van Bruxvoort (Digital Rights and Algorithms Officer), City of Amsterdam
• Approaching high-risk AI in Helsinki (20 min): Nuutti Kytö (Data Scientist), City of Helsinki

4. Q&A and discussion (20 min)

5. Closing (5 min)