What a municipality needs to arrange before its AI search goes live

When a municipality starts with an AI chatbot, the same question always comes first: does the AI Act allow this? Fortunately, the answer is almost always yes.

Whether you call it an AI chatbot or an AI search function makes no difference to the law, what matters is what the system does. Does it give information and point the way, or does it assess whether a resident is entitled to something? That determines which rules apply to you.

Before your information security officer, your data protection officer and your alderman say yes, you take five steps.

What the AI Act asks of you

The AI Act sorts AI by risk. A system that gives information and points the way falls under limited risk. High risk only starts where a system helps decide about people, for example when it assesses whether someone is entitled to a benefit, a subsidy or a service. Europa decentraal explains it in more detail (in Dutch).

This summer, the news covered a delay of the AI Act. That delay is in the Digital Omnibus, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, which entered into force on 27 July 2026. It moves the rules for high-risk systems to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028. So nothing changes for an informative search function, because it doesn't fall under high risk.

Two rules that already existed do apply to an AI search function. The transparency obligation in Article 50 took effect on 2 August 2026: a resident has to see right away that they're talking to AI. And since 2 February 2025, Article 4 asks you to support the AI knowledge of your staff. Since the Digital Omnibus, that's an obligation of effort: you don't have to guarantee a specific level for each employee.

The five steps you take

1. The DPIA, and who writes it

A DPIA (Data Protection Impact Assessment) is a risk analysis for privacy. It's required for processing with a high privacy risk (Article 35 GDPR). Whether that applies to your AI search function is something you assess together with your data protection officer. The European data protection authorities use 9 criteria (in Dutch): if processing meets 2 or more, a DPIA is usually needed. With AI that interacts with residents, two often come together: it involves new technology, and the relationship between municipality and resident is unequal. That's why many municipalities do a DPIA.

On top of that, the sensitive part isn't in your content, but in the question. A resident types in their own situation, even if you don't ask for it.

In the DPIA, you also record the legal basis: the grounds on which you're allowed to process personal data. The GDPR lists six (Article 6(1)). A company can often rely on "legitimate interest", but a municipality may not use that basis for its own tasks. For an AI search function, the legal basis is therefore the performance of a public task.

You write and sign the DPIA yourself. No supplier can do that for you, and neither can we. We do supply the facts the form asks for, in your own format. The processing activities, sub-processors, retention periods, risks and measures are all together in DPIA and processing register. Refer to that page rather than copying the tables, so your DPIA stays correct when a sub-processor changes.

Then the data itself: where is it stored, and for how long? The index and the questions asked are stored at TrueFullstaq in Almere. If you choose an external language model, it runs in the Netherlands or elsewhere in the EU. Which models are available and where they run is on the page about language models. If a resident types in personal data, vragen.ai anonymizes it within an hour by default. Conversations are deleted after twelve months, and you set that period yourself.

2. The algorithm register, and whether you have to

The algorithm register (in Dutch) is a public list in which Dutch public bodies show which algorithms they use and what for. Registering isn't mandatory, but the government does want public bodies to include their algorithms with a big impact or a high risk. A law isn't coming any time soon: in September 2025, the state secretary called it "niet opportuun" (in Dutch), meaning not needed for now. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (in Dutch) does argue for it.

Municipalities handle this in different ways. Digimonitor studied 39 municipal chatbots (in Dutch) and also checked whether they're in the register. That was true for fourteen of the 39, so the other twenty-five aren't breaking any rules.

Still, we recommend registering. It means filling in a form, not running a project, and residents can then read for themselves what happens to their question. If the obligation ever comes, you're already done. If you deliberately decide not to, write down why, because a council member may ask about it later. We supply the details for the form fields.

3. Human rights: the IAMA and the VNG framework

Besides privacy, there are fundamental rights, such as the right to equal treatment. For that, there's the Impact Assessment Mensenrechten en Algoritmes (IAMA), the Dutch human rights and algorithms impact assessment: a tool for checking whether an algorithm affects those rights. It was updated in February 2026 (in Dutch) and now aligns with Article 27 of the AI Act, the fundamental rights impact assessment. For an informative search function, the full IAMA is often too heavy and a lighter assessment is enough. Do record how you made it.

If you work at a municipality, you'll also come across the VNG AI Governance Framework (in Dutch). That's guidance from the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, with steps and roles for using AI responsibly. It's meant for the municipality itself, not as a quality mark for suppliers, so a supplier can't "comply" with it. If a supplier says it does, ask what that's based on. We do supply the information you need to go through those steps.

4. Accessibility, and how to test it

This step has the most to gain. Digimonitor tested the same 39 municipal chatbots on 29 accessibility checkpoints. None of them met the requirements (in Dutch).

For a municipality, that counts twice. Your accessibility statement says your site is working toward the requirements. A widget you can't operate with a keyboard undoes that. On top of that comes Article 50(5): the notice that the visitor is talking to AI also has to meet the accessibility requirements. A screen reader won't read out a gray line of text inside an image.

Test this before you go live: grab the keyboard and try it yourself. What we've done to our own widget is in the WCAG updates. If you change the design yourself, you're also responsible for the accessibility of that design.

5. Procurement, without a European tender

For services, the European threshold for municipalities in 2026 and 2027 is €216,000 (in Dutch). A subscription to an AI search function stays well below that, so a European tender isn't needed. Your own procurement policy sets the route. Usually you ask one or a few suppliers for a quote: a single or multiple private tender.

Procurement and your information security officer do want to see four documents: a data processing agreement, the certifications, the list of sub-processors and the results of a pentest, a security test by an outside party. They're ready on the security page. If your website runs through a partnership of municipalities, you buy together with the other municipalities.

What you can check now

• Do you know whether the system only informs, or also assesses whether someone is entitled to something? That determines your risk category.
• Is the legal basis recorded as the performance of a public task?
• Have you set the retention period for questions deliberately, and turned anonymization on?
• Is your decision about the algorithm register written down, even if you decide not to register?
• Does the widget work with a keyboard only, and is the AI notice text that can be read aloud?
• Do you know who looks after the AI knowledge of the staff who fine-tune the answers?
• Is it clear how a resident reaches a person when the answer isn't there?

How we look at this at vragen.ai

The division of roles is simpler than that stack of documents suggests. In GDPR terms, you're the controller: you decide what the data is used for. That's why the DPIA, the registration and the assessments are yours. We're the processor: we carry out the work and supply the facts that go into them.

There's one boundary that comes with that. We deliberately keep vragen.ai on the informative side: it answers from your own content, shows where it found the answer and refers to a staff member when the answer isn't there. If you have a system assess whether a resident is entitled to something, it falls under high risk. That's a bigger project, with the rules that come with it, and you can always talk that through with us.

Want to see what that looks like for your municipality? Create your demo. It's free and reads your own website.

Short answers

Does a municipal AI chatbot have to be in the algorithm register?

No. The government does want algorithms with a big impact or a high risk to be in it, but there's no legal obligation. In September 2025, the state secretary said one wasn't needed for now. Of the 39 municipal chatbots in the Digimonitor study, fourteen link to the register. Our advice is to register, even if you don't have to.

Is a DPIA mandatory for an AI search function?

You assess that together with your data protection officer. A DPIA is required when there's a high privacy risk (Article 35 GDPR). With AI that interacts with residents, that's often the case, because it involves new technology and the relationship between municipality and resident is unequal. That's why many municipalities do one. The DPIA remains the controller's job.

Does the delay of the AI Act also apply to our search function?

No. Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 moved the high-risk obligations to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028, and an informative search function isn't in that category. Article 50 has applied since 2 August 2026, Article 4 since 2 February 2025.

Is an AI search function a high-risk AI system?

Not as long as the system informs and refers people on. High risk covers, among other things, automatically assessing whether someone is entitled to a benefit, a subsidy or a service. The difference lies in the task you give the system.

Do we need a European tender for an AI search function?

No. The threshold for services for decentralized governments is €216,000 for 2026 and 2027, and a subscription stays well below that. If your website runs through a partnership of municipalities, you buy together with the other municipalities.