From 2 August 2026, a very concrete part of the AI Act — the European regulation on artificial intelligence (Regulation EU 2024/1689) — comes into force: the transparency obligations. In practice, anyone who uses AI in contact with the public — a chatbot on a website, AI-generated text or images for marketing, synthetic content — will have to say so clearly. This is not a rule aimed only at big tech: it also affects SMEs, professional firms and hospitality businesses that already use these tools today, perhaps without giving it much thought.
What actually takes effect on 2 August 2026
The AI Act entered into force in August 2024 with a phased application. The milestones already passed: February 2025 (ban on prohibited practices and the AI literacy obligation) and August 2025 (governance rules and «general-purpose» AI models). On 2 August 2026 it is the turn of the transparency obligations under Article 50, which in concrete terms mean:
- Chatbots and virtual assistants: users must know they are talking to a machine, not a person.
- AI-generated content (text, images, audio, video): it must be recognisable as artificial.
- Deepfakes: content that imitates real people or situations must be labelled as such.
Be careful not to get confused: what does NOT take effect in August
In recent months the European Union approved a simplification package, the so-called «Digital Omnibus»: the EU Council gave its final green light on 29 June 2026. The package postpones the heavier obligations on «high-risk» systems (Annex III) from 2 August 2026 to 2 December 2027. The transparency obligations under Article 50, on the other hand, remain confirmed for 2 August 2026. The only technical exception: for systems already on the market before August, the content marking (watermarking) obligation has a four-month extension, until 2 December 2026.
Why it concerns your company (or your hotel) too
Many organisations already use AI without labelling it: a chatbot for bookings or customer support, product descriptions or posts generated with tools like ChatGPT, AI-created images for their website or social media. From 2 August, these uses require clear communication to the user. The good news: you do not have to give up AI, you just have to use it transparently.
What to do now, in practice
- Inventory: identify where you use AI — chatbots, text and image generation, internal tools.
- Communications: add notices where needed («you are talking to a virtual assistant», indications on generated content).
- Human oversight: define who checks and approves what the AI produces.
- Training: those who use these tools must know what is changing.
- Documentation: keep track of which tools you use and how.
How BIT supports you
BIT Informatica helps companies and hospitality businesses use AI in a useful and compliant way: we map the tools already in use, integrate transparency communications where needed (website, chatbot, content) and bring order between technology and rules. The goal is not to hold back innovation, but to make it sustainable and compliant — with a single local technical point of contact.
