AI ActDeadlines

The AI Act timeline that actually affects you

27 May 2026 · Euridium

The AI Act entered into force on 1 August 2024, but almost nothing applied that day. The regulation phases in over years, and the dates that matter are the ones that switch on obligations for your systems.

The dates that bind

2 February 2025 — Prohibited practices (Art. 5) and the AI-literacy duty (Art. 4) apply. Already in force.
2 August 2025 — Obligations for general-purpose AI models, the governance framework, notified bodies, and the penalty regime. Member States must designate their national authorities.
2 August 2026 — The big one for most companies: high-risk systems under Annex III and the transparency duties of Article 50. National regulatory sandboxes become operational.
2 August 2027 — High-risk systems under Annex I (AI as a safety component of regulated products), plus the compliance deadline for GPAI models already on the market before August 2025.
2030 — Long-tail deadlines for legacy public-sector systems and large-scale IT systems.

Why a static report goes stale

A compliance PDF you export today is blind to these dates. The moment 2 August 2026 arrives, an Annex III system that was “upcoming” becomes “binding” — and nothing in a static document tells you that. This is exactly why compliance needs to be a live register with a clock, not a snapshot.

What to do now

Know which application date each of your systems is measured against.
Work backwards from that date to a realistic evidence plan.
Keep the register current as systems change and dates arrive.

The deadlines aren’t the scary part — being unable to answer “which of our systems is affected, and by when?” is.