EU AI Act
The EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) is the EU law regulating the development and use of artificial intelligence by risk — from prohibited practices through transparency obligations to strict requirements for high-risk AI.
The regulation has been in force since 1 August 2024 and applies in stages. Since 2 February 2025, the bans on certain AI practices and the AI literacy obligation (Art. 4) apply. Since 2 August 2026, the transparency obligations under Art. 50 apply — for example, people must be able to recognise when they are interacting with an AI system such as a chatbot.
With the so-called Digital Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744), in force since 27 July 2026, the obligations for stand-alone high-risk AI systems under Annex III — such as AI in applicant selection or lending — were postponed from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027. Later deadlines also apply to AI in regulated products.
For most businesses, two points are practically relevant today: employees working with AI need sufficient AI literacy, and AI systems in contact with customers must identify themselves as AI. On circle.gmbh, the assistant Karl therefore explicitly introduces himself as an AI assistant.
What to look out for
- Create an overview of all AI systems used in the company — from chatbots to text generation.
- Provide and document training or guidelines for employees who use AI.
- Clearly label chatbots, phone AI and other customer-facing AI as AI.
- Check whether a use case falls into a high-risk area, such as recruitment.
- Review the legal situation regularly — the deadlines were already changed in 2026.
Common mistakes
- The website chatbot acts like a human without any indication of AI.
- The postponement of high-risk deadlines is read as an all-clear for all obligations.
- Nobody knows which AI tools are actually used in the company.
Frequently asked questions
Since 2 August 2026, the transparency obligations under Art. 50 of the AI Act apply, including: people must be able to recognise that they are interacting with an AI system. Bans and the AI literacy obligation have applied since 2 February 2025.
Only partly. The Digital Omnibus (Regulation (EU) 2026/1744) postponed obligations for stand-alone high-risk AI systems under Annex III to 2 December 2027. Bans, AI literacy and transparency obligations apply unchanged.
Yes, under Art. 50 of the AI Act people must be able to recognise that they are interacting with an AI system.
Legal basis: Art. 4 AI Act · Art. 50 AI Act · Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 · Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 · As of
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