The EU AI Act: What You Need to Know 2025

Artificial intelligence is transforming everything from healthcare and hiring to education and public safety. But with innovation comes regulation. The European Union’s new AI Act, adopted in 2024, is the world’s first comprehensive law on artificial intelligence. Often described as “the GDPR for AI,” it introduces a risk-based framework for how AI systems can be developed, deployed, and used. For privacy professionals and students, understanding its key principles is essential, as it will shape the future of data and AI governance in Europe—and likely influence laws beyond its borders.

The AI Act categorizes AI systems into four levels of risk: unacceptable, high, limited, and minimal.

1. Unacceptable risk AI refers to practices that are so harmful they are completely prohibited. These include systems that apply social scoring to individuals, exploit vulnerable groups such as children, enable real-time biometric surveillance in public spaces, or perform predictive policing. There are eight specific banned uses listed in the regulation, all of which pose serious threats to fundamental rights or safety. If an AI system falls into this category, it cannot legally be developed or used within the EU.
2. High-risk AI includes systems that may significantly affect people’s lives or rights but are not outright banned. These are typically found in critical sectors such as healthcare, education, employment, financial services, and law enforcement. Examples include AI used to screen job applicants, evaluate students, grant loans, or assist with legal decision-making. Providers of high-risk AI must meet strict obligations before their products reach the market. They must implement risk management and mitigation processes, ensure that training data is accurate and free from bias, maintain comprehensive documentation and traceability records, provide clear user instructions, incorporate human oversight, and guarantee cybersecurity and accuracy. Many high-risk systems will also undergo external conformity assessments before being approved for use, and both providers and users must continue monitoring their performance and report serious incidents.
3. Limited-risk AI applies to systems where transparency is the main concern. This includes AI tools that interact directly with people or generate content, such as chatbots, voice assistants, and generative models. The Act requires that individuals be informed when they are engaging with an AI system rather than a human, and that AI-generated or manipulated content, such as deepfakes, is clearly labeled as such. Developers of general-purpose AI models must also provide information about their training data and ensure compliance with copyright rules. These transparency requirements are intended to prevent deception and promote trust in AI systems.
4. Minimal or no-risk AI covers the vast majority of AI systems, such as spam filters or video game algorithms, where the potential impact on people’s rights is negligible. For these systems, the AI Act does not impose any new obligations beyond existing legal requirements.

The Act entered into force in August 2024, but its obligations will take effect gradually. The bans on certain AI uses and governance provisions will begin applying in early 2025, while most high-risk system requirements will come into force by 2026, giving organizations a two-year transition period to prepare. By 2025, EU member states must establish national AI authorities, and a European AI Office will coordinate enforcement efforts across the Union. This structure closely mirrors the way data protection authorities and the European Data Protection Board operate under the GDPR.

For privacy professionals, the AI Act matters because it intersects closely with data protection law. Many high-risk AI systems rely on personal data, and issues such as bias, data quality, and fairness are central to both the AI Act and the GDPR. Organizations deploying AI tools, particularly in areas like HR or customer decision-making, will need to understand not only data protection obligations but also AI governance, ethics, and security requirements. The overlap between these frameworks means privacy professionals will increasingly be involved in AI compliance and risk management.

Ultimately, the EU AI Act ushers in a new era of accountability and responsible innovation. It bans harmful AI practices, imposes strong safeguards for high-stakes applications, and promotes transparency where people interact with AI. Much like the GDPR did for data protection, the AI Act seeks to balance technological advancement with fundamental rights. Privacy students and professionals do not need to memorize every provision, but they should understand the overall approach; its focus on risk levels, transparency, documentation, and human oversight. AI governance is now an integral part of the privacy landscape, and it will soon be part of the daily work of privacy and compliance teams across Europe.