From 2 August 2026, your chatbot must admit it's an AI

## The deadline nobody saw coming For months, there's been one message about AI regulation in Europe: "high-risk" is postponed. True — the May 2026 deal pushed those obligations to late 2027. But by staring at that date, a lot of business owners missed the other one. On **2 August 2026**, a piece of the AI Act becomes applicable. And this one doesn't target American AI labs. It targets any company that put **a chatbot on its website**. So, possibly, yours. ## What Article 50 actually says Article 50 of the EU AI regulation is about **transparency**. Two obligations, plainly. **1. Your chatbot must say it's an AI.** If a visitor interacts with an automated assistant — text chatbot, voice callbot — they must be informed **clearly, at the first interaction**. No more little bot posing as "Sarah from customer service" without mentioning that Sarah is a script. **2. Your AI-generated content must be identifiable.** Text, image, audio or video produced by AI and meant for the public must be **marked as such**, in a machine-readable and detectable format. Application date: **2 August 2026**. For marking content already online, a short grace period runs until **2 December 2026**. ## "But I'm an SMB, not Google" That's exactly the mistake. The "high-risk" obligations pushed to 2027 — biometrics, CV screening, scoring — mostly concern the big players. But Article 50 transparency hits **the everyday AI user**. That is, the SMB that installed a chat widget six months ago and never thought about it again. If you have a support chatbot, a voice assistant, automated booking, or you publish AI-generated visuals and posts — you're concerned. And most sites aren't compliant, simply because nobody told them. ## The good news: there are common-sense exemptions Before you panic: the text is pragmatic. You have nothing to flag when: - it's **obvious** you're talking to an AI, to a reasonably attentive person; - the content goes through **human review** with genuine editorial responsibility; - the AI is merely **assistive** — fixing spelling, for instance. So the issue is AI posing as a human, or fakes circulating without a label. Not your spellchecker. ## What an SMB should do (in one afternoon) Nothing insurmountable. Three moves. 1. **On your chatbot or callbot**: add a visible "You're chatting with an AI assistant" from the first message. It's the simplest part, and the most within your control. 2. **On your public AI content**: indicate when a visual or text is AI-generated. 3. **The "machine-readable" marking** (the technical watermark on images and video) is the less trivial part — often handled by the tool you use. Check with your provider or vendor. ## The opinion we'll stand behind A well-built chatbot already has this baked in. The "AI" notice, the framing, the traceability: you set it once, cleanly. The ones scrambling in August will be the widgets copy-pasted in five minutes and left there without a thought. That's exactly why we build [chatbots](/en/solutions/chatbots) that are compliant by default: transparency isn't a last-minute patch, it's in the foundations. And let's be clear — warning that someone's talking to an AI isn't an admission of weakness. It's what earns a customer's trust. ## Takeaway 2 August 2026 won't shut your business down. But if you have a chatbot, you have a small compliance fix to make — saying it's an AI — and it's better to handle it now, calmly, than under the pressure of a formal notice. Want us to check whether your chatbot and AI uses are compliant? [Book a free audit](/en/call). *Sources: [European Commission — AI Act, Article 50](https://ai-act-service-desk.ec.europa.eu/en/ai-act/article-50), [European Parliament — deal on AI Act simplification (May 2026)](https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20260427IPR42011/ai-act-deal-on-simplification-measures-ban-on-nudifier-apps), [Article 50 practical guide](https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/transparency-rules-article-50/).*

The deadline nobody saw coming

What Article 50 actually says

"But I'm an SMB, not Google"

The good news: there are common-sense exemptions

What an SMB should do (in one afternoon)

The opinion we'll stand behind

Takeaway

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