The EU AI Act: What It Means for Your Business (and Your Translations)

𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦: 3 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘴🕒

The world’s first major AI law is here. If your organisation uses AI in any form, even indirectly, now is the time to understand your responsibilities.

The EU Artificial Intelligence Act (EU AI Act) is the first comprehensive legal framework of its kind.

Its goal? To make the use of AI more transparent, ethical and safe across all industries. That includes everything from medical diagnostics to machine-generated marketing content.

The law is already in motion, with transparency rules for general-purpose AI models taking effect from August 2025. Stricter requirements for high-risk AI systems come into force just one year later, in August 2026.

If your organisation offers AI-driven tools, services or products within the EU — regardless of where you're based — these rules apply to you.

This guide breaks down the essentials: what the EU AI Act is, how it categorises risk and what steps you can take to stay compliant.

What is the EU AI Act?

The EU AI Act is designed to regulate how artificial intelligence is developed and used within the EU.

It doesn’t treat all AI equally. Instead, it classifies AI systems based on the level of risk they pose to individuals and society.

There are four categories:

• Unacceptable risk — AI systems that are banned outright (e.g. social scoring by governments, manipulative algorithms)

• High risk — Systems used in regulated sectors or affecting fundamental rights (e.g. healthcare diagnostics, credit scoring, legal tools)

• Limited risk — Tools that require transparency but are not subject to strict regulation (e.g. chatbots, deepfakes)

• Minimal risk — Low-impact tools such as spam filters or game AI, with no specific obligations

Understanding where your systems fall within this framework is the first step toward compliance.

Key milestones: What’s changing and when?

What qualifies as ‘high-risk’ AI?

According to the EU AI Act, high-risk AI refers to systems with the potential to significantly affect health, safety, legal status or livelihoods.

Examples include:

• Healthcare – AI-assisted diagnostics, medical imaging, or surgical tools

• Finance – Credit scoring, insurance underwriting, fraud detection

• Employment – AI used in recruitment, performance evaluation, or promotion

• Legal and judicial systems – Tools supporting sentencing or evidence analysis

• Public services and policing – Systems used in predictive policing, immigration or security screening

Basically, if your business uses these systems, or relies on third-party tools that do, you’ll need to meet detailed obligations. These include risk assessments, documentation, transparency practices, and human oversight.

What are the transparency requirements?

Transparency is central to the EU AI Act. If your AI system interacts with people, they must be informed that AI is involved.

This means:

• Chatbots must disclose that they are not human

• AI-generated content must be labelled as such

• Users should understand how key decisions are made

Organisations must also maintain detailed records on how the AI was trained, what data it uses, and what outcomes it produces. This documentation will need to be available for audits or legal scrutiny.

What happens if you don’t comply?

Failure to meet the EU AI Act’s requirements could result in significant penalties:

• Up to €30 million or 6% of global annual turnover

• Legal liability in cases of harm or data misuse

• Reputational damage with regulators, clients, and stakeholders

Given the financial and operational risks, it’s essential to act early, particularly if your systems fall under the high-risk category.

Why this matters for translation and localisation

Even if your organisation isn’t building AI, you might be using it for subtitling, machine translation, voiceovers, content generation or user support.

If AI is part of your global content pipeline, you’ll need to ensure:

• Outputs are labelled accurately

• Human oversight is in place

• Clients and users are informed when AI is involved

At Wolfestone, we already support clients with AI post-editing, human QA and compliance-aligned language solutions.

We can also help document your language workflows for regulatory readiness.

The EU AI Act is a shift in how organisations are expected to build trust with users and stakeholders.

Whether you’re using high-risk AI or relying on general-purpose models for marketing, content or operations, now is the time to review, prepare and adapt.

If you need help assessing your current setup, or want to ensure your multilingual content workflows remain compliant and transparent, our team is here to help.

Contact us for a free consultation.

𝘒𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 2021 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘨𝘰 𝘨𝘭𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵. 𝘏𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦, 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘶𝘥𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴.