Filed under compliance.

The AI Act enforcement date nobody prepared for

On 2 August 2026, national market surveillance authorities across the EU began enforcing Article 4 of the AI Act — the staff AI literacy obligation that has technically been in force since February 2025. Most European universities have confused talking about AI with ensuring their staff can actually handle it. The first penalty will almost certainly arrive not from the literacy clause alone, but as an aggravating factor when a high-risk system is found deployed without documented staff training.