# What is the EU AI Act?

> The EU AI Act is an EU regulation that sorts AI systems into risk tiers and sets legal obligations, heaviest for high-risk systems.

Source: https://meshin.co/glossary/eu-ai-act
Updated: 2026-10-02

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## Why it comes up

It comes up the moment a company has, or wants, a customer in the EU, regardless of where it is based. A customer's legal team asks which risk tier your product falls into before they sign, because their own exposure depends on your answer. A board asks about it once a competitor gets fined, or a customer raises it at renewal. The Act follows the AI system's users, not the provider's registered address.

## What to do about it

Work out which risk tier each AI system falls into. Most products used inside a normal business are not high-risk. A few categories, hiring and credit among them, almost always are high-risk and deserve a real legal read.

For anything near the high-risk category, start the paperwork now: a risk assessment, a named oversight point, and technical documentation. For everything else, keep the register entry current, so the answer is a lookup, not a scramble.