The definitive SME guide — updated April 2026
EU AI Act: What it means for your business
The EU AI Act is now in force. Understand the timeline, find your risk level, and discover exactly what you need to do — without wading through 144 articles yourself.
Enforcement timeline: 2024–2031
Click any date to see what changes and which articles apply.
Aug 2024 · Art. 113
EU AI Act enters into force
The regulation was published in the Official Journal of the EU and became binding law 20 days later. The 24-month countdown to full application begins.
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milestones
What is your AI system's risk level?
Answer 3–4 questions to find out your EU AI Act classification.
Q1
Does your system fall into any prohibited use category under Article 5?
Includes: social scoring by public authorities, real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces, emotion recognition in workplaces/education, predictive policing based solely on profiling.
Obligations by role
Which obligations apply depends on your role in the AI value chain.
| Obligation | Provider | Deployer | Importer | Distributor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Risk management system (Art. 9) | ||||
| Technical documentation — Annex IV (Art. 11) | ||||
| Record-keeping & logging (Art. 12) | ||||
| Transparency to deployers (Art. 13) | ||||
| Human oversight measures (Art. 14) | ||||
| Accuracy, robustness, cybersecurity (Art. 15) | ||||
| Conformity assessment (Art. 43) | ||||
| EU database registration (Art. 49) | ||||
| Article 26 deployer obligations | ||||
| Verify provider compliance (Art. 23) | ||||
| Transparency notices to users (Art. 50) | ||||
| Post-market monitoring (Art. 72) |
Frequently asked questions
15 questions every SME asks about the EU AI Act.
Stop reading guides — start complying
AIComply translates every EU AI Act obligation into a practical action for your specific systems. Classify your first AI system free in under 10 minutes.