Do I have to tell users they are talking to an AI?

Conclusion

Yes, in most cases. Under Article 50(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the "EU AI Act" / "AI-verordening"), providers of AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons must design the system so that the user is told they are interacting with an AI. Where a business deploys a chatbot, virtual assistant or similar tool that converses with members of the public, it must make that disclosure at the moment of interaction. The core exceptions are: (i) where it is obvious from the context to a reasonably well-informed person that they are dealing with a machine, and (ii) certain authorised law-enforcement uses.

Reasoning

1. The general rule (Article 50(1))

Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 is titled "Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems." Paragraph 1 provides:

"Providers shall ensure that AI systems intended to interact directly with natural persons are designed and developed in such a way that the relevant natural persons are informed that they are interacting with an AI system, unless this is obvious to a reasonably well-informed natural person, taking into account the circumstances and context of use."

Applied to a typical user-facing chatbot, this means:

• The provider (developer/place-on-market entity) must technically enable the disclosure at the UI layer.
• The deployer (the business using the bot to talk to its customers) must ensure the disclosure is actually shown. This follows from Article 50's title and from Recital 132, which treats the same transparency logic as binding on those operating the system towards end users.
• Disclosure must happen at the moment of contact, not buried in a privacy policy or terms of use. A short banner such as "You are chatting with an AI assistant" at the top of a chat window is the standard way to comply.

2. Adjacent obligations you should not confuse this with

Article 50 contains several different disclosure duties, aimed at different actors:

A "user is talking to an AI" question sits squarely under paragraph 1; the deepfake/marking rules in paragraphs 2 and 4 apply to the content an AI produces, not the conversational disclosure.

3. Main exceptions to the "tell the user" rule

The duty in Article 50(1) is not absolute. The most relevant exceptions are:

1. Obviousness. If a reasonably well-informed person, looking at the context, would already know they are dealing with an AI, no extra notice is required. A bot named "HelpBot" with a robot icon and a "Type your message…" prompt in a chat window is usually obvious; a voice that imitates a human on the phone, or a chatbot embedded in a flow that mimics a human advisor, usually is not. The assessment is context-specific.

2. Law-enforcement and security carve-out. Article 50(1) is read together with the Act's general exceptions in Articles 2 and 5 and Recital 132: where the AI is used to detect, prevent or investigate criminal offences, and informing the user would impair that purpose, the disclosure does not have to be given (the deployer may need to justify this with a documented assessment).

3. Pure ancillary technical communication is not exempt — Recital 132 clarifies that "interacting directly with natural persons" covers ordinary chatbot and voice-assistant cases, even when used to answer customer-service questions. The exception is narrow.

4. Internal/employee-facing AIs used purely as productivity tools (e.g., drafting help for staff) are not "intended to interact directly with natural persons" as end users in the conversational sense; that category falls outside Article 50(1), though other obligations in the Act may still apply (general-purpose AI provider duties, GDPR, etc.).

4. When the rule applies (dates)

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 entered into force on 1 August 2024. The transparency obligations in Article 50(1) and (2) apply from 2 February 2025, with most other provisions applying from 2 August 2026 (Article 113). Penalties for non-compliance with Article 50 are set out in Article 99 and can reach up to EUR 15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover for providers, whichever is higher.

5. Practical compliance checklist

• Put a clear, brief notice at the start of the conversation (chat overlay, first message, voice greeting).
• Avoid UI patterns that masquerade as a human (no human photo, no first-person claims of being "Sarah from customer service").
• If you use a third-party chatbot vendor, contractually pass through the Article 50(1) design duty (the provider obligation) and implement your own deployer-side notice.
• Keep an internal record of the obviousness assessment where you rely on that exception.
• Separate, overlapping duties (GDPR transparency, deepfake marking, content provenance labelling) still apply — Article 50 does not displace them.

Sources and limitations

• Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 June 2024 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) — Article 50 (Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems), Article 99 (penalties), Article 113 (application dates); Recital 132. Official source: EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/oj).
• Live keyword search of EUR-Lex was not reachable during the drafting of this FAQ, so the article numbers above are cited from the published consolidated text of the Regulation; verify the current in-force wording directly on EUR-Lex before relying on it for binding purposes.

This FAQ is general information, not legal advice; for a binding opinion on a specific deployment, consult a qualified EU-law adviser.