On 27 July 2026, the AI Omnibus, proposed by the European Commission as part of the Digital Omnibus package and adopted by the European Parliament and Council as Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, entered into force across the EU.
The AI Omnibus aims to support innovation and strengthen the EU’s competitiveness by simplifying certain compliance obligations under the AI Act, particularly for SMEs and start-ups, while preserving the Regulation’s core safeguards. The amendments also introduce targeted clarifications intended to reduce legal uncertainty for providers and deployers.
Some of the key changes include:
- Extended timelines
Several AI Act deadlines have been extended, including those applicable to certain high-risk AI systems, while the AI Office has been given additional time to publish key guidance and harmonized standards.
- Transparency and labelling
While most transparency obligations under Article 50 continue to apply from 2 August 2026, providers of AI systems generating synthetic audio, image, video or text content placed on the market before that date will benefit from a grace period until 2 December 2026 to comply with the machine-readable labelling requirement.
In addition, certain obligations applicable to high-risk AI systems will benefit from extended transitional periods. Standalone high-risk AI systems listed in Annex III will become subject to the relevant requirements from 2 December 2027, while high-risk AI systems embedded in regulated products under Article 6(1) and Annex I will become subject to the relevant requirements from 2 August 2028.
- Bias detection
The legal basis for processing special categories of personal data for bias detection and correction has been extended to providers and deployers of all AI systems and models, provided that such processing is strictly necessary.
- AI literacy
The AI literacy approach has been simplified, with providers and deployers required to take measures promoting AI literacy, while the Commission and Member States will support initiatives aimed at improving AI literacy.
- Extended enforcement powers
The AI Office’s supervisory powers have been expanded to cover general-purpose AI models and certain AI systems embedded in very large online platforms and search engines.
The text of the AI Omnibus is available here.
We have previously covered the entry into force of the AI Act and other AI-related topics in our AI Corner, available here.
