EU AI Act Enforcement Begins for High-Risk Systems Across Member States

What Happened

The European Union's AI Act has moved into a critical enforcement phase. As of this month, national authorities across EU member states are now actively required to monitor and assess AI systems classified as high-risk. This includes AI used in hiring, credit scoring, education, healthcare, and critical infrastructure.

What Counts as High-Risk

Under the Act, a high-risk AI system is one that makes or significantly influences decisions that affect people's lives. If you use AI tools to screen job applicants, assess loan eligibility, or make recommendations in medical or legal contexts, your systems may fall into this category.

Businesses that deploy these systems must now have proper documentation, human oversight processes, and transparency measures in place. Failure to comply can result in fines of up to 30 million euros or six percent of global annual turnover.

What This Means for UK Businesses

The UK is not directly bound by the EU AI Act following Brexit, but any UK business that sells products or services to EU customers or operates in EU markets must comply. The UK is also developing its own AI governance framework, and regulators have signalled they are watching EU developments closely.

What To Do Now

If your business operates in or sells to the EU, now is the time to audit what AI tools you are using and how decisions are being made. Work with your legal or compliance team to map out which systems might qualify as high-risk. If you are a smaller business using off-the-shelf AI tools from major vendors, those vendors are largely responsible for compliance, but you still need to document your own use cases.