In depth analysis of the EU AI Act.
Under the EU AI Act, many companies will not experience compliance pressure first through a regulator. They will experience it through a contract. That is the core argument behind Regulation by Contract — a framework for understanding how AI governance will move through the market before it fully moves through national enforcement structures. The mechanism […]
Article 50 of the EU AI Act is one page and seven paragraphs. The Commission’s draft guidelines to implement it — published on 8 May 2026 for stakeholder consultation until 3 June — are forty pages. That gap is the compliance problem in one number. This piece works through what the forty pages actually add,
The question of whether AI agents fall under the EU AI Act has generated more confusion than it deserves. The short answer is yes — in most cases they do, and not because the Act was amended or extended to cover them, but because Article 3 was written broadly enough to capture them from the
AI Agents and the EU AI Act: Already in Scope, Still Poorly Understood Read More »
Most HR teams are not thinking about the EU AI Act. They should be. The regulation does not require a company to build AI. It does not require a dedicated AI department. It does not distinguish between a company that develops its own algorithms and one that subscribes to an off-the-shelf ATS. What it requires
By April 2026, France and Germany are operating under the same EU AI Act — the same articles, the same deadlines, the same penalty framework. But the national infrastructure each country has built around that law is so different that the choice of where to anchor your AI operations has become, in practical terms, a
The EU AI Act is the world’s first comprehensive AI law. It entered into force on 1 August 2024 and is rolling out in staggered phases through 2030. As of April 2026, two of its four major implementation waves have passed. A third — covering high-risk AI systems — is about to be formally delayed
EU AI Act 2026: Where We Are, What Just Changed, and What the Rest of the World Is Doing Read More »
The EU AI Act’s core obligations fall on all businesses from August 2, 2026. But the cost picture for SMEs varies so dramatically — from near-zero to over €600,000 — that framing this as a single compliance challenge fundamentally misrepresents the situation. Your actual exposure depends almost entirely on one variable you can determine right
EU AI Act Compliance Costs for SMEs: What You Will Pay in 2026 — and Every Year After Read More »
Article 14 of the EU AI Act requires that high-risk AI systems be designed so that humans can effectively oversee them. The obligation sits with deployers: assign a capable person, ensure they understand the system’s capabilities and limitations, make certain they can intervene when necessary. On paper, the oversight loop is closed. In practice, it
Article 14 and the Competency Gap — When Human Oversight Isn’t Enough Read More »
This analysis reflects the state of EU AI Act enforcement readiness as of 1 April 2026, based on the first edition of the index. The index has since been updated (May 2026) to reflect new designations, legislative developments, and the Digital Omnibus agreement of 7 May 2026, which pushes the high-risk enforcement deadline from August
The EU AI Act Enforcement Gap: Which Countries Are Ready for the AI Act Read More »
When the EU AI Act entered into force in August 2024, most compliance attention immediately gravitated toward its high-risk provisions: the risk classifications, the conformity assessments, the technical documentation requirements. Article 4, tucked near the beginning of the regulation, attracted far less scrutiny. It is, after all, just one sentence long. That sentence, however, has
