As of today, 2 August 2026, Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on Artificial Intelligence (the EU AI Act) reaches another key implementation milestone. This is one of the most significant dates in the Regulation's implementation timeline, as the competent authorities can now exercise the supervisory and enforcement powers provided for under the Regulation in relation to the provisions that become applicable from this date.

What Takes Effect from 2 August 2026:

• The European Commission (through the AI Office) and the competent national authorities may exercise the supervisory, investigative and enforcement powers provided for under Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 in relation to the provisions that are applicable from that date
• The transparency obligations under Article 50 begin to apply, including the requirements to inform natural persons when they are interacting with an AI system and to label certain categories of AI-generated or AI-manipulated content.

An important clarification
The obligations applicable to high-risk AI systems listed in Annex III do not enter into force today. Their application has been postponed until 2 December 2027 under the recently adopted AI Omnibus Regulation (approved by the Council of the European Union on 29 June 2026). For high-risk AI systems that are safety components of regulated products (Annex I), the applicable date remains 2 August 2028.
This does not diminish the significance of today's implementation milestone. The transparency obligations under Article 50, the obligations applicable to providers of GPAI models, and the corresponding enforcement powers all apply from today, irrespective of the postponement of the obligations for high-risk AI systems.

What this means for organizations
Organizations that use AI systems—whether developed in-house or supplied by a third party, such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot or similar solutions—should determine their role under the Regulation and identify which obligations apply to their activities. As of 2 August 2026, breaches of the applicable transparency obligations, as well as the applicable obligations for providers of GPAI models, may now give rise to enforcement action and administrative fines, rather than merely being identified during supervisory activities.
If you have not yet reviewed the AI systems used by your organization, this should now be one of your immediate priorities. You should identify the AI systems for which your organization acts as a provider, deployer, importer or distributor, assess whether any of them qualify as high-risk AI systems, and verify that the applicable transparency obligations have been implemented. This will help you prepare in a timely manner for the compliance deadlines in 2027 and 2028.
 
How Consejo can help
Consejo supports organizations in preparing for compliance with the EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689) by assessing the applicability of the Regulation, identifying AI systems, assessing AI-related risks, and developing AI governance policies and procedures. We also assist with integrating the Regulation's requirements into existing management systems based on ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 42001.

Contact us for a free initial consultation to assess how the EU AI Act applies to your organization and identify the steps needed to achieve compliance.