# What is a conformity assessment?

> A conformity assessment proves a high-risk AI system meets the EU AI Act before sale. Either the provider or an outside body runs it.

Source: https://meshin.co/glossary/conformity-assessment
Updated: 2026-10-02

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## Why it comes up

An investor or a board asks how a company knows its AI system is compliant. A vague assurance is not the same as pointing to a completed assessment and a signed declaration. A procurement team increasingly asks to see evidence the assessment happened at all, rather than taking a compliance claim on trust. It also surfaces at the worst time, during a late-stage system change, when nobody planned for a second assessment.

## What to do about it

Work out early, before the system is built, which assessment route applies. That matters because a notified-body review takes far longer to arrange than an internal one, and you cannot rush it at launch.

Keep the assessment evidence alongside the technical documentation it depends on, not in a file only one person can find. Mapping each system to its likely route is part of the [AI readiness and risk assessment](/services/ai-readiness-and-risk-assessment) done before a deadline forces the decision.