Provisional agreement defers AI Act high-risk deadlines to December 2027 and August 2028

On 7 May 2026 the European Parliament and the Council reached a provisional agreement on the digital omnibus on AI; Member States' ambassadors endorsed it on 13 May 2026. As agreed, requirements for stand-alone (Annex III) high-risk AI systems would apply from 2 December 2027 and for high-risk AI embedded in regulated products from 2 August 2028. The marking requirement for AI-generated content is postponed to 2 December 2026 for systems placed on the market before 2 August 2026. The text still requires formal adoption by Parliament and Council.

This is the most consequential AI Act development since adoption: the high-risk compliance dates most programmes were built around are moving by 16–24 months. But until the amending regulation is in the Official Journal, the agreed dates are not yet law.

Providers and deployers of current or planned high-risk AI systems, and compliance leads deciding what to do with programmes scoped against 2 August 2026.

Keep non-high-risk workstreams on the 2 August 2026 date, and re-baseline the high-risk track only once the amending regulation is formally adopted and published — then take the dates from the final text.