Does the EU AI Act apply to small businesses?

Yes, but lightly. Most small businesses use AI rather than build it, and their duties amount to understanding the tools they use, labelling AI content in two narrow cases, and not using AI to make big decisions about people. The heavy obligations fall on companies building or selling high-risk AI.

When does the AI Act start?

It's already partly in force. The bans and AI literacy duties have applied since February 2025, and the rules for big AI models since August 2025. The honesty rules for AI products apply from 2 August 2026. The high-risk regime follows on 2 December 2027, after the EU moved it back from 2026.

We use ChatGPT and other AI tools at work. Do we need to do anything?

Very little. Make sure the people using them understand what the tools can and can't do, and keep a human review step before anything AI-written goes out under your name. The rules for the models themselves are for the makers to meet.

Does it apply to UK businesses?

Not if all your business is in the UK. The UK has no AI Act and regulates AI through existing regulators instead. The EU law still applies to any part of your business that sells into the EU or has its AI output used there, wherever you're registered.

Up to €35 million or 7% of worldwide turnover for banned practices, with lower tiers below that. Small and medium businesses pay whichever of the two figures is lower. As of July 2026 no fine had been issued anywhere in the EU. The first enforcement will most likely target obvious cases, like chatbots that hide being AI.

Does using Remi make my business AI Act compliant?

No tool can promise that, and be wary of any that does. Remi's defaults cover the parts a tool can: it tells people it's AI, asks before it acts, keeps records and stores your data in the EU. The rest depends on how your team works with AI, and we're happy to help with that.

EU AI Act

Updated July 2026

What the EU AI Act means for your business

One set of AI rules for all 27 EU countries, coming into effect in stages until 2028. The rules for the AI tools businesses use every day have applied since 2 August 2026. This page sets out what applies to you and what to do, with the dates.

Check where you stand

Or ask us what applies to you

Next date 2 Dec 2026Content-marking long-stop

Where do you stand?

What does your business do with AI?

Answer a few questions to see which parts of the Act apply to you.

€35Mtop fine, or 7% of worldwide turnoverwhichever is higher

27countries under the same rulesno national opt-outs

3duties for a typical small businesssee below

What is the EU AI Act?

One law for AI across the whole EU, in force since August 2024 and switching on in stages until 2028. It treats AI the way Europe treats machinery or medicine. The more damage a use could do, the stricter the rules. The official text (opens in a new tab) runs long, but the parts that matter to most businesses fit on this page.

The law cares about what AI is used for, so the same AI system is unregulated when it summarises meeting notes and heavily regulated when it screens job applications.

It splits the world into providers, who build and sell AI, and deployers, the businesses that use it. Providers carry most of the load. The law applies wherever you're based if you sell into the EU or your AI's output is used there.

The makers of the big models, like Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (ChatGPT), answer to a separate chapter that has applied since August 2025. Its duties fall on them, and their customers have nothing to do under it.

Four levels of risk

Every use of AI falls into one of these, and the rules get heavier at each level up.

Select a level

Applies from 2 August 2026

Transparency

AI that talks or creates

Chat assistants, writing tools, image generators. The rules here are about honesty. People must know they're dealing with AI, and AI-made content must carry a machine-readable mark saying so.

Remi and most business AI tools sit here

What breaking it costs

Fines depend on which rule you broke. National regulators pick the higher of a fixed sum or a share of worldwide turnover.

Using a banned practice: €35Mor 7%
Breaking the product rules, including the honesty rules: €15Mor 3%
Misleading a regulator: €7.5Mor 1%

The small-business exception

For SMEs the cap flips, and you pay the lower (opens in a new tab) of the fixed sum or the percentage. As of July 2026 no fine has been issued anywhere in the EU, and nobody wants to be the first.

What applies when

The EU amended the schedule in June 2026, pushing the high-risk dates back. These are the current dates.

Next
Products already on the market get until this date to finish machine-readable content marking. Two new bans also begin, on AI built to generate child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate images.

Today

2 Dec 2026Next

Content-marking long-stop

Products already on the market get until this date to finish machine-readable content marking. Two new bans also begin, on AI built to generate child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate images.

If your business uses AI tools

What you need to do

If your business uses AI tools rather than builds them, the list is short.

01
Make sure your team understands the AI they use
In force since February 2025, with no exam or certificate. The people using AI at work should know what it's good at and where it fails, and you should be able to show how they learned it.
02
Label AI content in two narrow cases
From August 2026, AI-written text published on matters of public interest with no human review must say so, and deepfakes must always be labelled. If a person reviews and edits before publishing, you're already covered.
03
Don't let AI decide about people
Screening CVs, scoring credit, setting someone's insurance price. From December 2027 these carry the strictest rules in the Act. Use AI to draft and research, and leave decisions about people to a person, or take advice first.

And what you don't have to do

Those duties belong to providers of high-risk AI, and everyday business tools aren't high-risk.

No registering with a regulator
No CE marking, audits or certificates
No impact assessments
No new privacy rules. GDPR already covers your data, and this law doesn't change it

Where Remi fits

Under the Act, Remi sits at the transparency level

Remi is a shared AI workspace for teams. It reads documents, answers questions, drafts and runs workflows, and its defaults are built around what the Act asks of a tool like that.

It asks before it sends.

You always know it's AI
Remi says what it is in the interface, and AI edits are labelled as AI edits.
A person approves what matters
By default, Remi shows you exactly what it's about to do outside your workspace and waits for a yes. With Autopilot on, it still asks before it sends anything to other people, spends money or deletes something for good.
There's always a record
Every AI action is logged, so you can always see what the AI did and when.
Your data stays yours
Your data is hosted in the EU and never used to train models. When you leave, we delete it.

Common questions

Talk to us

Not sure which parts apply to you?

Tell us how your team uses AI. We'll reply with the parts of the Act that matter for your business, and the parts you can ignore.

Read the law yourself

General information, not legal advice. Based on Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 as amended in June 2026.

What the EU AI Act means for your business

What is the EU AI Act?

Four levels of risk

Transparency

What breaking it costs

The small-business exception

What applies when

Content-marking long-stop

What you need to do

Make sure your team understands the AI they use

Label AI content in two narrow cases

Don't let AI decide about people

And what you don't have to do

Under the Act, Remi sits at the transparency level

You always know it's AI

A person approves what matters

There's always a record

Your data stays yours