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ShortsJuly 23, 2026 · 2 min read

EU AI Act: 9 Things Businesses Using AI in or Serving the EU Should Know

Your business does not need to be based in the EU for the EU AI Act to matter. Here are nine practical actions and the dates to watch.

Your business does not need to be based in the EU for the EU AI Act to matter.

The Act can reach businesses using AI in EU operations, selling AI systems into the EU or producing AI outputs used there. Your obligations depend on your role and use case, but these nine actions provide a practical starting point.

Which is already required

  1. Know where AI is used. Map suppliers, use cases, affected people and your role.
  2. Screen prohibited practices. Keep manipulation, social scoring and prohibited workplace emotion recognition out of processes.
  3. Support AI literacy. Help staff use and oversee AI responsibly.

From 2 August 2026

  1. Check interaction notices. People must know when they interact directly with AI, unless it is obvious from the context. Check that suppliers provide the required notice.
  2. Disclose sensitive AI use. Tell people about permitted emotion recognition or biometric categorisation where required.
  3. Label specific AI content. Disclose deepfakes and label public-interest text that lacks qualifying human review.

Coming 2 December 2027

  1. Identify high-risk uses. Check employment, education, credit, insurance and essential-service processes.
  2. Prepare deployment controls. Build in human oversight, input checks, monitoring, logs and incident handling.
  3. Check rights assessments. Specified deployers must assess fundamental-rights impacts before first use.

Dates to watch

  • 2 August 2026: Transparency duties apply.
  • 2 December 2026: New prohibitions apply and a provider marking grace period ends.
  • 2 December 2027: High-risk rules apply to relevant stand-alone systems.
  • 2 August 2028: High-risk rules apply to relevant systems embedded in regulated products.

The hard part is knowing where AI sits in a real process, what role the business plays and who owns each obligation. That is where process orchestration matters.

Checked 23 July 2026. This is a practical summary, not legal advice.

References

Official sources for the obligations and dates summarised above.

  • AI Act timeline (Council of the EU). link
  • EU AI Act, Article 2 (scope), on EUR-Lex. link
  • Navigating the AI Act: FAQs (European Commission). link
  • Transparency obligations under Article 50: FAQs (European Commission). link