The AI Act is the European regulation on artificial intelligence. The deadline that matters for you: August 2026. And no, it isn’t just for giants.
Three things that actually concern you
1. AI literacy (Article 4). Your teams must understand the tools they use. Not a PhD — a documented baseline. If your people use AI (they do — see shadow AI), this applies to you.
2. Transparency. If an AI talks to your clients, or generates content, you must be clear about it. A chatbot posing as a human, product claims generated without control: slippery ground.
3. “High-risk” uses. CV screening, client scoring, advice touching health or safety: these are framed more strictly. Many SMEs do this without realising.
What to put in place now
You don’t need a legal department. You need four things:
- a named AI referent (one person, not a committee);
- an inventory of who uses what;
- two pages of signed usage rules;
- a trace for sensitive uses.
That’s exactly the foundation we install first in an audit. Not because it’s mandatory — because it’s what protects you the day someone asks.