EU AI Act August 2026 Deadline — What You Need to Do

• Providers must ensure people are told when they are interacting directly with an AI system unless that is obvious to a reasonably informed person; deployers should verify the notice is implemented in their service.
• Inform people exposed to an emotion-recognition or biometric-categorisation system, subject to the Act's specific rules and exceptions.
• Ensure providers mark specified synthetic audio, image, video, or text output in a machine-readable and detectable format.
• Disclose deepfake content and certain AI-generated public- interest text, applying the exceptions and presentation rules in Article 50.
• Keep evidence showing where notices appear, who owns them, and when they were reviewed.

AI-literacy duties began applying earlier, on 2 February 2025. Providers and deployers must take measures to ensure an appropriate level of AI literacy for relevant staff and other people operating systems on their behalf. Do not treat August 2026 as the start date for every AI Act duty.

Non-compliance with obligations other than prohibited practices can fall within a maximum fine tier of €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover. The actual response depends on the breach, proportionality, national enforcement, and the organisation's circumstances.

A missing notice can also create customer, procurement, and reputational problems before a regulator becomes involved.

Inventory customer-facing AI, map each use to Article 50, draft the required notices, test that users can see them at the right time, assign an owner, and retain screenshots or other evidence. Recheck the list whenever an AI feature or customer journey changes.