AI Governance Engineer
GitHub

Intended purpose

By Updated

The use for which the provider intends an AI system, including its specific context and conditions of use 1. Most high-risk duties are measured against it, so it is a field of the use-case record that classification, tests and instructions for use read. A model moved to a new purpose is, for risk, a new system.

Developed in
ch. 14, The use-case record
ch. 11, From definition element to registry field
Chapters
ch. 11, AI Defined · ch. 14, Development
Contrast with
Reasonably foreseeable misuse
Source
1 numbered reference, listed below

Where it is used

10 chapters of the Body of Knowledge use the term. Each link opens the first section that does.

Patterns that use this term

5 pattern pages use the term, most mentions first.

  • Adaptiveness

    The ability of an AI system to change its behaviour while in use, through learning after deployment; optional under the EU AI Act definition.

  • Human-in-command (HIC)

    The oversight mode, named by the EU High-Level Expert Group, in which people oversee the overall activity of an AI system and decide when and whether to use…

  • Human-in-the-loop (HITL)

    The oversight mode in which a person can intervene in every decision cycle of an AI system; in engineering terms, a gate that holds each consequential action…

  • Human-on-the-loop (HOTL)

    The oversight mode in which a person can intervene in the design cycle and monitors the system's operation, rather than approving each decision.

  • Use-case record

    The intake record for a proposed AI use: business context, intended purpose and the uses ruled out, affected persons, decision authority, success metrics and…

  • Testing in real-world conditions

    Under the EU AI Act, temporary testing of an AI system for its intended purpose outside a laboratory, under a plan approved by the market surveillance…

  • Classification decision record

    A versioned registry record of why a system sits on a given rung of the AI Act risk ladder: the Annex III point, any Article 6(3) condition relied on, an…

Sources

  1. [1] Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act), consolidated text as amended by Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI, in force 27 Jul 2026; definitions in Art. 3, incl. 3(1), 3(3) to 3(14), 3(14b), 3(20), 3(22), 3(23), 3(29) to 3(32), 3(49), 3(55) to 3(57), 3(60), 3(61), 3(63), 3(68); Arts. 4, 5, 6 (incl. 6(3) third subparagraph, profiling), 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 22 to 27 (incl. 26(11)), 40, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50, 53 (incl. 53(1)(c)), 55, 57, 60, 72, 73, 86; Annexes I, III, IV). Publications Office of the EU (EUR-Lex). 2026-07-27. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/1689/2026-07-27/eng (verified: primary)

Definitions of legal terms paraphrase the cited text, which governs. Dated statements are as of .

Cite this term

García Aibar, J. (2026). Intended purpose. In AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis & Body of Knowledge (v0.5.0), Glossary. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22956197. https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/intended-purpose. CC BY 4.0

BibTeX

@misc{aige2026intendedpurpose,
  author  = {Jorge García Aibar},
  title   = {{Intended purpose}},
  note    = {Glossary, AI Governance Engineering: The Thesis \& Body of Knowledge, version 0.5.0},
  year    = {2026},
  doi     = {10.5281/zenodo.22956197},
  url     = {https://aigovernanceengineer.com/glossary/intended-purpose}
}