AI Omnibus enters into force across the EU

On 27 July 2026, the AI Omnibus enters into force across the EU, introducing targeted changes to the AI rulebook aimed at administrative simplification. Proposed as part of the digital omnibus package on 19 November 2025, the measure is intended to support innovation and competitiveness while preserving safeguards for people’s safety and fundamental rights.

The updates expand measures previously reserved for SMEs to small mid-cap companies, or SMCs, and widen access to regulatory sandboxes, including a new EU-level regulatory sandbox for supervised AI testing. Compliance timelines are also extended: rules for high-risk AI systems in Annex III apply starting 2 December 2027, while rules for high-risk AI embedded in physical products in Annex I apply starting 2 August 2028.

The package simplifies obligations for SMCs, adjusts company AI literacy requirements by giving the Commission and Member States a stronger role, and eases registration duties for exempted AI systems in the EU central database. It also bans AI systems that generate non-consensual sexually explicit and intimate content or child sexual abuse material, allows special-category personal data processing for bias detection and correction, and expands AI Office oversight of certain systems, including those built on general-purpose models and embedded in large online platforms and search engines.