Law / regulation
EU, Global
EU AI Act
Artificial Intelligence Act, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689
The EU AI Act is the world's first comprehensive AI law. It sorts AI systems by risk: some practices are banned, high-risk systems face strict requirements, some systems carry transparency duties, and general-purpose AI models have their own rules. It applies to providers and deployers inside and outside the EU. Bans and AI literacy have applied since February 2025 and GPAI rules since August 2025. After the 2026 Digital Omnibus, high-risk obligations apply from 2 December 2027 (stand-alone systems) and 2 August 2028 (AI in regulated products).
Mandatory: Mandatory law for providers and deployers of AI systems in scope, including many outside the EU
Quick facts
- What it covers
- Development, placing on the market and use of AI systems and general-purpose AI models in the EU, by risk category.
- Who needs it
- AI providers, deployers, importers; SaaS with AI features used in the EU
- Why it matters
- Software companies that build AI features, integrate AI models or sell AI products into the EU have legal duties that depend on their role and the use case, and EU customers already ask about them in procurement.
- Key requirements
- Don't use prohibited AI practices (Article 5)
- Take measures to support staff AI literacy (Article 4)
- Tell people when they interact with AI and mark AI-generated content (Article 50)
- GPAI model providers - technical documentation, copyright policy, training data summary
- High-risk providers - risk management, data governance, documentation, logging, human oversight, accuracy, QMS, conformity assessment, registration
- High-risk deployers - use as instructed, human oversight, monitoring, log retention, some impact assessments
- Where it applies
- EU market (applies to non-EU providers whose AI systems or outputs are used in the EU)
- Category
- AI Governance & Compliance