EU AI Act Compliance Checklist

Prepare for Europe's landmark AI regulation with a structured readiness assessment. Covers prohibited practices, high-risk system requirements, GPAI obligations, and conformity assessment. Includes key deadlines and gap analysis

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Key Insights

The EU AI Act is the world's first comprehensive AI regulation, and compliance deadlines are approaching: prohibited practices ban takes effect February 2, 2025, GPAI model obligations apply August 2, 2025, and full compliance is required by August 2, 2026. Organizations with EU operations or customers need to assess their AI systems and prepare for compliance.

This checklist provides a systematic approach to EU AI Act compliance: inventory your AI systems, classify them by risk level, confirm you don't engage in prohibited practices, identify high-risk requirements, and track your readiness for each deadline.

Overview

The EU AI Act affects any organization whose AI systems are used in the EU—regardless of where the organization is headquartered. With deadlines approaching, organizations need to inventory their AI, classify systems by risk level, and prepare for compliance requirements.

This checklist provides a structured approach to EU AI Act readiness. Work through it systematically to understand your compliance position and identify gaps.

What's Inside

Key Compliance Deadlines

February 2, 2025: Prohibited AI practices ban takes effect
August 2, 2025: GPAI model obligations apply
August 2, 2026: Full Act applies (except high-risk Annex I)
August 2, 2027: High-risk AI systems (Annex I) full compliance

1. AI System Inventory & Classification

Risk classification matrix:
- Prohibited: Social scoring, real-time biometric ID, manipulation, exploitation
- High Risk: Employment, credit, education, law enforcement, critical infrastructure, medical devices
- Limited Risk: Chatbots, emotion recognition, deepfakes, biometric categorization
- Minimal Risk: Spam filters, games, inventory management
Inventory template with classification, role (provider/deployer), EU impact

2. Prohibited AI Practices (Article 5)

Certification checklist for each prohibited practice
Review requirement tracking
Sign-off workflow

3. High-Risk AI System Requirements

Risk management system requirements
Data governance requirements
Technical documentation requirements
Record-keeping requirements
Transparency and user information
Human oversight requirements
Accuracy, robustness, cybersecurity
Conformity assessment preparation

4. Limited-Risk Transparency Obligations

Transparency requirements for chatbots
Emotion recognition disclosure
Deepfake labeling
Biometric categorization notification

5. GPAI Model Requirements

General-purpose AI obligations
Systemic risk assessment
Documentation requirements

6. Readiness Assessment Scoring

Self-assessment by requirement area
Gap identification
Action planning

Who This Is For

Chief AI Officers leading EU AI Act compliance
Compliance Officers implementing requirements
Legal Teams interpreting obligations
AI Product Teams assessing system classification
Anyone with AI affecting EU citizens or markets

Why This Resource

The EU AI Act is complex—hundreds of pages of requirements across risk categories, roles, and use cases. This checklist distills requirements into actionable items you can work through systematically. Deadline tracking ensures you prioritize what's due first.

The classification matrix helps you quickly identify which requirements apply to each AI system.

FAQ

Q: Does the EU AI Act apply to us if we're not in the EU?

A: If your AI systems are used by EU citizens or in the EU market, you likely have obligations. The checklist helps you assess applicability based on your AI systems and their EU impact.

Q: What are the penalties for non-compliance?

A: Penalties range up to €35M or 7% of global annual turnover for prohibited practice violations. The stakes are significant—hence the importance of systematic compliance preparation.

Q: How do we classify our AI systems?

A: The risk classification matrix provides guidance. High-risk classification depends on use case (Annex III) and product integration (Annex I). The checklist helps you work through classification systematically.