🤖 EU AI Act: What companies need to know and implement now
The EU AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive law regulating artificial intelligence, has been in force since 1 August 2024. It affects almost all companies that offer or use AI systems in the EU. Full implementation is mandatory from 2 August 2026. So it’s high time to get ready.
💡 What is behind the regulation?
The AI Act has three main objectives:
- Protect fundamental rights
- Promote trustworthy AI
- Create uniform rules across the EU
The AI Act divides AI systems into four risk levels.
The higher the risk, the stricter the requirements for transparency, security and control:
- Unacceptable risk (prohibited AI): e.g. social scoring, real-time facial recognition
- High risk (strict requirements): e.g. credit checks, application filters, biometric identification
- Limited risk (transparency requirements): e.g. chatbots, AI-supported recommendation systems, text generators
- Minimal risk (no requirements): e.g. spam filters, spell checkers, translation tools
Companies carry out the classification themselves based on the risk criteria set out in the EU AI Act. Supervisory authorities review this classification as part of market surveillance and intervene in the event of violations.
🚨 What are the consequences of violations?
- Up to €35 million or 7% of annual turnover
- Even missing labels or documentation can be considered a violation.
🧭 What companies should do now:
Conduct an AI inventory: Which AI applications are currently in use – consciously or unconsciously?
Define roles: Are you a provider, user, importer or distributor of AI systems?
Classify risk: How high is the risk of each individual AI application?
Ensure transparency: Create clear labelling and traceability.
Training & documentation: Mandatory for auditable compliance and internal security.
AI compliance as a competitive advantage
Companies should not view the EU AI Act as an obstacle, but rather as an opportunity to position themselves as trustworthy and responsible players in the field of AI. Clear rules, comprehensible processes and transparent communication build trust among customers and employees.
