The EU AI Act delay just stalled. What small businesses should do anyway.

The European Parliament voted in March to push the high-risk parts of the EU AI Act to December 2027, with embedded systems sliding to August 2028. For three weeks, every consultancy in Brussels was selling that as a reprieve. Then on April 28, the Digital Omnibus negotiations collapsed.

As of today, the legally binding deadline is still August 2, 2026. Three months out.

What actually changed

Nothing, legally. The vote in Parliament was a position, not a law. To take effect before August, the delay needs a political agreement through trilogue with the Council and Commission. The Cypriot presidency is pushing to close the file before its term ends June 30. The next trilogue is around May 13.

If they land it, you get a 16-month extension. If they don’t, the original deadline holds. No one knows which way it goes.

Why the delay was tabled in the first place

Two practical reasons:

• The technical standards businesses need to comply with aren’t finalised. You can’t certify against a standard that doesn’t exist yet.
• Only 8 of 27 member states have appointed the supervisory authority that’s supposed to enforce this. Belgium is one of the laggards.

So even the people drafting the law admit the infrastructure isn’t ready. That’s a signal worth holding onto when you read the next compliance-panic blog post.

What small businesses should actually do this week

Three steps. None of them depend on whether the delay passes.

1. Inventory your AI use. List every place you use AI: chatbots, lead scoring, hiring tools, content generation, recommendation engines. Note who built it, what data goes in, and what decision comes out. Most SMEs don’t have a high-risk system. They have a marketing chatbot and a few automation flows. Knowing the difference is half the work.

2. Add the transparency disclosure. Article 50 takes effect regardless of the high-risk delay. If a customer interacts with an AI on your site, they need to know. A one-line disclosure on the chatbot widget, in the footer of AI-generated content, or in your privacy notice. Cheap, and it’s due now.

3. Skip the consultant for now. Until the trilogue resolves and the technical standards land, anyone selling you a full EU AI Act compliance package is selling fog. Wait for the actual rulebook before you sign a five-figure engagement.

The honest read

For most small businesses in Belgium, the EU AI Act compliance burden in 2026 is closer to GDPR’s cookie banner than its data protection officer. Disclose where AI is used. Keep a list. Watch for the trilogue outcome in mid-May.

If the delay passes, you have until 2027 for the heavy lifting. If it doesn’t, you still have three months, long enough to handle the Article 50 piece and figure out whether anything you run actually qualifies as high-risk. Most things don’t.