The Engineer's Guide to the EU AI Act
A practical, article-by-article guide to the EU AI Act for engineering and compliance teams — risk classification, provider and deployer obligations, deadlines, and industry-specific requirements.
EU AI Act Compliance Checklist
Work through every obligation that applies to your AI system with our interactive compliance checklist.
What Is the EU AI Act?
The EU AI Act is the world's first comprehensive legal framework regulating artificial intelligence. It classifies AI systems by risk level and imposes obligations on providers and deployers accordingly — from outright prohibitions on unacceptable-risk practices to documentation, transparency, and human oversight requirements for high-risk systems.
Article-by-Article Guides
Foundations
EU AI Act Deadlines: Complete Timeline (2025-2027)
Complete timeline of EU AI Act enforcement deadlines from 2025 to 2027, including key compliance milestones for AI providers and deployers.
Prohibited AI Practices Under Article 5
Complete guide to prohibited AI practices under EU AI Act Article 5, including social scoring, manipulative AI, and biometric categorization.
EU AI Act vs GDPR: What's Different, What Overlaps
Side-by-side comparison of the EU AI Act and GDPR, covering scope, obligations, enforcement, and areas of overlap.
Article 4: AI Literacy Training Requirement
EU AI Act Article 4 AI literacy obligations — already in force since February 2025. What AI literacy means, who must be trained, and how to document compliance.
High-Risk AI Systems
Article 6: High-Risk AI System Classification
How to classify AI systems as high-risk under EU AI Act Article 6 and Annex III — the 8 categories, the Annex I product-safety path, and the decision tree.
Article 9 Risk Management: What It Means for Your Codebase
Understand EU AI Act Article 9 risk management requirements and how to implement them in your AI system codebase.
EU AI Act Article 10: Training Data Requirements
What EU AI Act Article 10 requires for training, validation, and testing datasets — data quality, bias detection, and documentation for high-risk AI systems.
Article 11: Technical Documentation (Annex IV)
EU AI Act Article 11 technical documentation requirements — what belongs in your Annex IV dossier, how to structure it, and how Scanara automates it.
EU AI Act Article 12: Record-Keeping & Structured Logging
How EU AI Act Article 12 record-keeping requirements translate to structured logging and audit trails in your AI systems.
EU AI Act Article 13: Transparency Requirements
What EU AI Act Article 13 requires providers to disclose in instructions for use — performance metrics, limitations, and human oversight measures.
Article 14 Human Oversight: Implementing Kill Switches
Practical guide to implementing human oversight mechanisms and kill switches for EU AI Act Article 14 compliance.
EU AI Act Article 15: Accuracy and Robustness
What EU AI Act Article 15 requires for high-risk AI accuracy, robustness against adversarial attacks, fail-safe mechanisms, and cybersecurity.
Article 16: Provider Obligations for High-Risk AI
EU AI Act Article 16 provider obligations (a)-(l) — what providers must do, how it differs from deployer duties, and a compliance checklist.
EU AI Act Article 17: Quality Management System
How to implement a quality management system for EU AI Act Article 17 — written policies, ISO 42001 alignment, and Annex IV documentation.
Article 72: Post-Market Monitoring for AI Systems
EU AI Act Article 72 post-market monitoring obligations — what providers must track after deployment and how Scanara's audit trail satisfies it.
Deployer Obligations
Article 26: Deployer Obligations for High-Risk AI
EU AI Act Article 26 deployer obligations — what deployers must do vs. providers, the FRIA mandate, and how Scanara automates compliance.
Article 27: Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment
EU AI Act Article 27 FRIA requirements — who must conduct a Fundamental Rights Impact Assessment, when it's required, and the 7-step methodology.
Limited-Risk & GPAI Obligations
Article 50: Transparency & Disclosure Requirements
EU AI Act Article 50 transparency obligations — chatbot disclosure, deepfake labelling, emotion-recognition notices, and what users must be told.
Article 53: GPAI Model Provider Obligations
EU AI Act Article 53 obligations for general-purpose AI model providers — Annex XI documentation, model cards, and systemic-risk assessment.
Article 55: Systemic Risk GPAI Model Obligations
EU AI Act Article 55 obligations for GPAI models with systemic risk — the 10^25 FLOPs threshold, adversarial testing, and incident reporting.
GPAI Obligations: What Foundation Model Users Need to Know
General-purpose AI compliance obligations under the EU AI Act for foundation model providers and downstream users.
Penalties & Costs
EU AI Act Fines 2026 — What Non-Compliance Actually Costs
Worked examples of EU AI Act fines in 2026. Article 99 penalty schedule, 3 personas × 3 scenarios, and how €799/mo compares to fines of up to €35 million or 7% of worldwide annual turnover.
Cost of Missing the August 2, 2026 EU AI Act Deadline
What happens if your AI system misses the EU AI Act's August 2, 2026 deadline — fines, market-access risk, and the compliance sprint to run now.
Best EU AI Act Compliance Tools 2026 — Honest Comparison
Honest comparison of 12 EU AI Act compliance tools in 2026 — purpose-built scanners, GRC platforms, code security tools, and manual consultants.
Industry-Specific Guides
EU AI Act Compliance for Healthcare AI
EU AI Act compliance guide for healthcare and medical device AI systems, covering high-risk classification and MDR interplay.
EU AI Act Compliance for HR Tech
EU AI Act compliance for HR technology and AI-powered hiring systems, covering high-risk obligations and bias requirements.
EU AI Act Compliance for Fintech
EU AI Act compliance for fintech and financial services AI, covering creditworthiness, fraud detection, and risk assessment systems.
EU AI Act Compliance for Education Technology
EU AI Act compliance for education technology and AI-powered learning systems, covering access-to-education high-risk classification.
EU AI Act Compliance for Biometrics
EU AI Act compliance for biometric AI systems, covering prohibited practices, high-risk classification, and real-time identification.
EU AI Act Compliance for Autonomous Systems
EU AI Act compliance for autonomous systems including self-driving vehicles, drones, and robotic systems.
EU AI Act Compliance for Critical Infrastructure
EU AI Act compliance for critical infrastructure AI systems, covering energy, water, transport, and digital infrastructure.
EU AI Act Compliance for Law Enforcement AI
EU AI Act compliance for law enforcement AI, covering predictive policing, biometric identification, and high-risk classification.
How Scanara Helps
Scanara automates EU AI Act compliance from code to dossier. Connect your GitHub repos and get compliance reports in minutes.