What procurement teams actually look for under the EU AI Act

As the EU AI Act moves from legislation to enforcement, procurement teams are becoming the first line of governance review for AI-enabled systems.

What many organisations underestimate is that procurement does not assess intent. It assesses evidence.

Policies are not evidence

Internal AI policies, ethical statements, and risk frameworks are useful, but they are not sufficient. Procurement reviewers increasingly look for artefacts that demonstrate how AI systems are governed in practice.

Under scrutiny, policies describe aspiration. Evidence shows operation.

What reviewers actually expect to see

A clear inventory of AI systems in scope
Named ownership and accountability per system
Documented risk classification and review decisions
Records showing how governance evolved over time
Evidence that can be independently reviewed

Why evidence beats assurance

The EU AI Act introduces ongoing obligations rather than one-off attestations. As a result, static documentation is quickly treated as stale.

Organisations able to produce timestamped, verifiable governance evidence are materially easier to approve and less likely to face repeated follow-up.

This is the shift from compliance posture to compliance proof.