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·EU AI Act: 2026 Application Deadlines and What Organisations Need to Know
The EU AI Act is being phased in gradually. The 2026 amendment moved the high-risk rules to 2027 and 2028. An overview for organisations.
Source / reference
Source / reference
EUR-Lex — Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act)Why it matters
Why it matters
The 2026 application stage and the 2027–2028 start of the high-risk rules bring compliance and documentation work for organisations using AI systems.
Tags
- EU AI Act
- AI compliance
- regulation
AI-collected and prepared content — may contain errors without human verification.
The EU Artificial Intelligence Act entered into force in August 2024. The regulation is not applied all at once — obligations become applicable in stages.
What becomes effective in 2025–2026?
February 2025: Application of prohibitions on unacceptable AI practices begins.
August 2025: Regulation of general-purpose AI (GPAI) models and establishment of AI offices.
2 August 2026: The Regulation’s general date of application, including the transparency obligations.
Update (15 October 2026): Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 (Digital Omnibus on AI) postponed the high-risk requirements: they apply from 2 December 2027 for Annex III uses and from 2 August 2028 for systems built into Annex I products.
Who is primarily affected?
The Act is particularly relevant for organisations that:
- Develop or operate AI systems classified as high-risk (e.g. HR decision support, credit scoring, healthcare AI)
- Integrate GPAI models into their products
- Embed AI tools into significant parts of their business processes
What to do now
The most important first step: inventory and risk classification of AI systems. A significant proportion of organisations are unaware of which systems fall within the Act's scope and which risk category they belong to.
Establishing documentation and governance structures follows from there.