Regulatory · 11 Jul 2026

The AI Act dates after the Digital Omnibus

The window moved later than it first looked, and incumbents will use it.

Annex III
2 Dec 2027
Annex I
2 Aug 2028
Article 50
2 Aug 2026
Reviewed
11 Jul 2026

Specifics

The numbers, and where they come from

Figures on this page, with the basis of each
QuantityValueBasis
Annex III stand-alone high-risk2 Dec 2027Cited
Annex I embedded high-risk2 Aug 2028Cited
Article 50 transparency2 Aug 2026Cited
Article 50(2) marking2 Dec 2026Cited
Aug 26Article 50Dec 26MarkingDec 27Annex IIIAug 28Annex I
The dates after the Digital Omnibus. Only the first one is close, and it applies to us.

The dates

What moved and what did not

  • 01

    Annex III stand-alone high-risk, 2 December 2027

    Deferred. This is the date most regulated conversational deployments are working towards, and it is the one our own deployment target is aligned to.

  • 02

    Annex I embedded high-risk, 2 August 2028

    Deferred further. Relevant to anyone putting a conversational engine inside a regulated product rather than beside one.

  • 03

    Article 50 transparency, 2 August 2026

    Unmoved. Disclosure that a user is interacting with a machine, before the first exchange.

  • 04

    Article 50(2) and new prohibitions, 2 December 2026

    Unmoved. Machine-readable marking of synthetic content.

Our position

Stated against our own interest

Article 50 applies to us, and determinism buys nothing there. A deterministic engine must disclose that it is a machine on exactly the same terms as a transformer. We have seen this claimed as a differentiator and it is not one.

The deferral is not good news for a company at our stage. A later window favours incumbents with deployments already running, who now have longer to retrofit record-keeping. Our advantage is that Article 12 records fall out of the stage eight log natively rather than being bolted on, and a longer runway erodes that advantage rather than protecting it.

Not legal advice

This page is a dated reading of the regulation by the company it applies to. It is reviewed on a stated cadence and the review date is shown. Do not rely on it in place of counsel.