The EU AI Act high-risk deadline is no longer 2 August 2026
A May 2026 political agreement pushed the EU AI Act high-risk obligations back by more than a year. Stand-alone high-risk systems now have until 2 December 2027, and AI inside regulated products until 2 August 2028.
For two years the date circled on every AI Act compliance plan was 2 August 2026. For high-risk systems, that date has moved, and a lot of timelines published before May 2026 are now wrong.
What changed
On 7 May 2026, EU lawmakers reached a political agreement, the digital omnibus, to postpone the AI Act high-risk obligations. The agreement still needs formal adoption, but it set new dates that are already shaping how companies plan.
The new high-risk deadlines
- Stand-alone high-risk systems listed in Annex III, for example recruitment, credit-scoring, education and law-enforcement tools: 2 December 2027.
- AI embedded in regulated products under Annex I: 2 August 2028.
What did not move
- The Article 50 transparency obligations still start on 2 August 2026.
- The prohibitions on unacceptable-risk uses have applied since 2 February 2025.
- The general-purpose AI model rules have applied since 2 August 2025.
The first question to answer
Whether any high-risk deadline binds you starts with one question: is your system high-risk at all? Most are not. Our free classifier walks the Annex III categories so you know which deadline, if any, is yours, before you spend a budget line on it.
Put it to work on your own case
The free tool below turns this into a result for your situation, in your browser, with no signup.
Check if your system is high-riskSources