AI Act (EU AI Regulation)
The AI Act is the European Union’s rulebook for artificial intelligence. It sorts applications by risk and attaches obligations to each tier — most visibly for businesses wherever content or answers come from an AI.
The AI Act sorts AI applications by the risk they carry: from prohibited practices through high-risk fields of use to applications of limited risk. The higher the classification, the stricter the requirements for traceability, oversight and documentation. The regulation applies directly across the Union and takes effect in stages.
For most small and medium-sized businesses this is not about high-risk systems but about transparency. Wherever a machine talks to people or generates content, it should be recognisable that a machine was involved. That covers assistants on your own website as much as automatically generated text or images.
In practice it means labelling rather than glossing over. Disclosing where AI played a part does not merely discharge an obligation; it answers a question the reader was going to ask anyway. For the specifics of your own case a legal review is needed — a glossary entry is no substitute for advice.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions.
Can I stop AI from training on my content — without becoming invisible?
Yes — with a TDM opt-out (TDMRep): a machine-readable usage reservation that forbids text and data mining of your content for AI training. The legal basis is the EU framework, which obliges providers of large AI models to respect such reservations. Reading and citing by AI answer systems stays allowed — you remain visible and citable while your text does not permanently flow into models. You set the rule once in machine-readable form, instead of leaving it to a legal text alone.
Does my website have to be accessible — does this affect me?
That depends on what your website does. The basis is the European Accessibility Act (EU Directive 2019/882), applicable since 28 June 2025 and implemented nationally — in Germany as the BFSG. It mainly concerns websites through which consumers can buy products or book services, such as shops or online booking. Exemptions are provided for microenterprises offering services. Whether your case falls under it is something to have checked legally if in doubt — only a qualified professional can give you a binding answer.
Regardless of the obligation, accessibility is almost always worth it: clear structure, good contrast and keyboard operation make your website easier for everyone to use — including older guests and people on their phones. And the same clean structure that helps a screen reader also helps search engines and AI systems understand your content correctly. Accessibility is quality — not a tiresome extra.