What is the UNI 11621-8 standard?

UNI 11621-8:2026 is the Italian technical standard, published on April 30, 2026, that systematically defines professional profiles for artificial intelligence roles: mission, core tasks, expected outcomes, competencies, knowledge, skills and KPIs for each role. It follows the methodology of UNI 11621-1 on unregulated professional profiles and aligns with the European e-Competence Framework (UNI EN 16234-1), so that Italian profiles remain comparable with the digital competence standards used across the rest of the European Union. The basis is twofold: article 4 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (the AI Act), which requires providers and deployers of AI systems to ensure an adequate level of AI literacy among their staff, and Law no. 132 of September 23, 2025, Italy's implementing law for the AI Act. Italy is the first European country to adopt a national standard of this kind.

The regulatory context

The AI literacy obligation in AI Act article 4 is generic by design: it asks providers and deployers of an AI system to ensure their staff has a sufficient level of competence, without specifying who does what. UNI 11621-8 fills that gap with a common language for describing roles, useful in a contract, a job description or a training plan that needs to document the obligation. It is not a mandatory standard: no company is required to adopt it, but it is the technical reference a tender or an audit points to when asking for evidence of that literacy. The official announcement is on the website of the Italian Department for Digital Transformation.

The 12 defined profiles

The standard defines twelve profiles (grouped here by area, not in the official source's order): Chief AI Officer, AI Consultant, AI Product Manager, AI Prompt Engineer, AI Algorithm Engineer, AI Deep Learning Engineer, AI Machine Learning Engineer, AI Natural Language Processing Engineer, AI Data Engineer, AI Data Scientist, AI Security Specialist and AI Research Scientist.

Why it matters for decision makers

A small or mid-sized company does not need all twelve roles on its payroll: many overlap, and in a small organization one person will cover more than one. The standard's value lies elsewhere, in two concrete uses. The first is allocating responsibility: knowing whether the person overseeing the models is an AI Machine Learning Engineer or an AI Research Scientist changes what is expected of them and what should instead be outsourced. The second is the mandatory training under AI Act article 4: a literacy plan built on UNI 11621-8 profiles is easier to defend in front of a customer or an auditor than one written from scratch, because the reference is public and verifiable. A company relying on an external consultant can use the same grid to understand which profile it is actually buying.

This entry is informational and does not constitute legal or HR advice: for implementing these profiles in staffing or contracts, involve your legal counsel or HR function.