The EU AI Act Is Here
The EU AI Act entered into force in August 2024, but most obligations take effect in phases through 2026 and 2027. If your organization deploys AI systems that interact with EU citizens — or processes data from the EU — you're in scope. This isn't optional. Fines reach up to 7% of global annual turnover for prohibited AI practices and 3% for other violations.
Risk Classification: Where Does Your AI Fit?
The Act classifies AI systems into four tiers: Unacceptable Risk (banned outright — social scoring, real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces), High Risk (strict requirements — hiring tools, credit scoring, critical infrastructure), Limited Risk (transparency obligations — chatbots, deepfake generators), and Minimal Risk (no specific requirements — spam filters, game AI). Most enterprise AI agents fall into the High Risk or Limited Risk categories. DRD's policy engine maps directly to these tiers, letting you define governance rules that mirror the regulation.
High-Risk AI: The Full Requirements
For High-Risk systems, Article 9-15 requirements include: a risk management system maintained throughout the AI lifecycle, data governance with quality criteria for training datasets, technical documentation sufficient for authorities to assess compliance, record-keeping with automatic logging of events, transparency and provision of information to deployers, human oversight measures allowing intervention, and accuracy, robustness, and cybersecurity standards. DRD's agent governance framework covers monitoring, logging, and policy enforcement natively. The audit trail feature provides the record-keeping required under Article 12.
Timeline: Key Dates You Can't Miss
February 2025: Prohibited practices enforcement begins. August 2025: Obligations for general-purpose AI models (including foundation models). August 2026: Full enforcement for High-Risk AI systems. August 2027: Embedded AI systems in regulated products. If you're reading this in 2026, the High-Risk deadline is months away. Start with a risk classification audit of every AI system in your stack.
Your 10-Point Compliance Checklist
1. Inventory all AI systems and classify by risk tier. 2. Appoint an AI compliance officer. 3. Implement a risk management system with continuous monitoring. 4. Document training data sources and quality controls. 5. Enable comprehensive logging and audit trails. 6. Add human oversight mechanisms to High-Risk systems. 7. Create transparency notices for Limited Risk systems. 8. Conduct conformity assessments for High-Risk AI. 9. Register High-Risk systems in the EU database. 10. Establish an incident reporting process for serious incidents.
How DRD Helps
DRD's governance platform was designed with regulatory compliance in mind. The policy engine maps to EU AI Act requirements, the monitoring system provides Article 12 logging, and trust badges give you a verifiable compliance signal. Register your agents, define policies that match your risk tier, and let DRD handle the continuous monitoring and audit trail generation.
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