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R&D COPILOT

# AI Act: a practical starting point

Map your role, your use cases and the evidence you need before scaling AI.

Updated 6 October 2026 · Scope depends on your actual use case.

## Start with your role and intended use

The AI Act does not apply identically to every company or AI feature. Map whether you provide, deploy, import or distribute a system and what the system is intended to do. Assess prohibited practices, risk classification and transparency requirements before selecting a compliance workstream.

## Use the current timeline

According to the European Commission’s current implementation page, AI literacy and prohibited-practice provisions apply from 2 February 2025, and general-purpose AI provisions from 2 August 2025. Transparency obligations apply from 2 August 2026. Following the AI Omnibus, Annex III high-risk rules apply from 2 December 2027 and product-integrated Annex I high-risk rules from 2 August 2028. [European Commission: AI regulatory framework](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/regulatory-framework-ai).

For systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026, the specific Article 50(2) output marking and detection duty has a transition to 2 December 2026. This does not postpone every transparency obligation. [Commission transparency guidance](https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/faqs/transparency-obligations-under-article-50-ai-act).

## Prepare evidence your specialists can use

-   Inventory systems, intended use and accountable owners.
-   Map data sources, providers and processing locations.
-   Document human oversight, disclosures and quality review.
-   Plan remediation and team training for applicable obligations.

We support technical readiness and implementation. Legal classification and the applicability of obligations require a case-specific review.

[Discuss AI Act readiness](https://rdcopilot.com/contact/?service=ai-act-readiness)

For more EU regulatory guides, visit [regulations.md](https://regulations.md/).