Key dates, including the Digital Omnibus changes

The timeline

• 1 August 2024: the AI Act enters into force.
• 2 February 2025: prohibited practices are banned; the AI literacy duty starts (reworded, not delayed, in July 2026).
• 2 August 2025: rules for general-purpose AI model providers; national authorities and penalties in place.
• 2 August 2026: most of the Act applies, including the transparency duties for chatbots, deepfakes, emotion recognition and marking AI-generated content (Art. 50).
• 2 December 2026: two new bans (AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material); end of the marking grace period for generative systems already on the market before 2 August 2026.
• 2 August 2027: every EU country must have at least one AI regulatory sandbox running.
• 2 December 2027: obligations for high-risk systems in Annex III (employment, credit, education, essential services, biometrics, critical infrastructure and so on).
• 2 August 2028: obligations for high-risk AI in regulated products (Annex I).

What the Digital Omnibus changed

The Digital Omnibus on AI, Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, was published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026 and has been in force since 27 July 2026. It:

• moved Annex III high-risk obligations from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027;
• moved Annex I obligations from 2 August 2027 to 2 August 2028;
• gave generative systems already on the market until 2 December 2026 to mark their output (Art. 50(2));
• added two bans, on AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery and child sexual abuse material, from 2 December 2026;
• reworded the AI literacy duty to "support the development" of AI literacy, without guaranteeing a specific level;
• kept the duty to register systems that rely on the Article 6(3) exception.

It did not delay the existing bans, the AI literacy duty, the GPAI rules or the transparency duties.