A provider is the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body that develops an AI system or a general-purpose AI model, or has it developed, and places it on the market or puts it into service under its own name or trademark.
Think: whose name is on the AI system when it is launched, sold or first put into use? That organisation can be the provider even if someone else wrote the code.
Provider = puts it out under their name.
Do not equate provider with programmer. White-labelling or commissioning a system can make an organisation the provider.
A fintech licenses an AI engine, brands the finished service as its own product and sells it to banks. The fintech can be the provider of that AI system.
Reviewed 15 September 2026. Educational exam-preparation content only; not legal advice.
Official checks: consolidated EU AI Act · Commission implementation timeline · Article 50 guidance · GPAI guidance