EU AI Act (AI Regulation)

The EU AI Act is the European Union's law on artificial intelligence. It classifies AI systems by their risk (minimal, limited, high, prohibited) and ties differently strict obligations to each tier. Most important for SMEs: the transparency obligations under Article 50 apply from 2 August 2026, including the duty to inform customers that a chatbot is being used.

What is the EU AI Act?

The EU AI Act is the first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence in the European Union. At its core, the law follows a risk-based approach: the higher the risk posed by an AI system, the stricter the obligations. The regulation distinguishes four tiers, from minimal risk (such as a spam filter) through limited risk (such as an AI chatbot) and high risk to prohibited applications.

Important for context: this article offers orientation, not legal advice. For a binding assessment of your specific case, speak to a lawyer.

Which obligations apply to SMEs?

For most small and mid-sized businesses, the high-risk tier is not the relevant one, but the "limited risk" tier with its transparency obligations. The central article is Article 50:

• Article 50(1): Anyone deploying a chatbot or another AI system that people interact with must inform those people. In short: the customer has to know they are writing to an AI (see AI disclosure).
• Article 50(4): AI-generated or manipulated images, audio and video, that is deepfakes, must be labelled. AI-generated text on matters of public interest must be marked when it is published without human editorial control.

These transparency obligations apply from 2 August 2026. For providers of general-purpose AI and for high-risk AI systems, the regulation sets out additional, further-reaching obligations.

Labelling AI content

Exactly how AI content has to be labelled is currently being detailed. On 10 June 2026, the European Commission published a voluntary code of conduct on labelling AI-generated content. Detailed guidelines are still pending. For businesses, this means: the direction is clear, but stay on top of the details.

Why this matters for your customer communication

As soon as you use AI in customer contact, such as an automatic first reply over WhatsApp or an AI-assisted answer in the inbox, it falls under Article 50. A clear, early-visible disclosure not only creates legal certainty, it also builds trust. Studies have shown for years: customers accept bots when they know where they stand and when switching to a human is possible at any time.

The EU AI Act and SendSeven

SendSeven is a unified messaging platform that brings WhatsApp, Telegram, SMS, Instagram, Messenger, email, live chat and browser push into one inbox. The AI assistant in SendSeven has a configurable AI disclosure: you store an adaptable notice text that informs the customer about the use of AI and mentions handover to a member of the team. That puts the chatbot disclosure under Article 50(1) in place without any DIY. Through the AI bots you set up exactly these flows, always with a clean handover to your team. All GDPR-compliant and Made in Germany, as a Meta Business Partner. Try it free for 14 days, no credit card. That gets you well positioned for the EU AI Act, without us being able to guarantee full compliance, which depends on your specific use.