{"id":3694,"date":"2026-08-05T09:27:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/?p=3694"},"modified":"2026-08-05T09:32:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:32:43","slug":"ai-labeling-obligation-eu-ai-act-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/ki-kennzeichnungspflicht-eu-ai-act-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"AI labelling obligation from 2 August 2026: What you need to know now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Your chatbot must introduce itself as an AI. Your avatar video needs a visible notice. And your automatically generated newsletter can no longer pretend that a human wrote it. Since the 2 August 2026<\/strong> Do the transparency and AI labelling obligations of the EU AI Act apply to almost every organisation that uses AI? Sounds like bureaucracy? But above all, it's a question of orientation. And that is exactly what you get here \u2013 step by step.

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What happened?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Article 50 of the AI Regulation (EU) 2024\/1689 has been applicable since 2 August 2026. The idea behind it is simple and correct: People should be able to tell when they are dealing with AI<\/strong> \u2013 when they chat with a chatbot, watch a video or read a text. The rules apply directly in all EU member states, including Germany. A separate German law is not required for this.<\/p>\n

Important to know: The obligations do not only apply to the providers of AI systems. Anyone who also uses AI appoints<\/strong> \u2013 as a business, public authority, association or sole trader \u2013 bears its own responsibilities. The European Commission published guidelines on this in July 2026, which clarify many practical questions.

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Does that even concern me?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The shorts Answer: Very probably yes. Ask yourself three questions:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Do you use a Chatbot or voicebot<\/strong> in customer service?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Are you publishing Content that is AI<\/strong> were created \u2013 texts, images, videos, audio?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Do you work with Avatars or AI voices<\/strong>, for example for training or marketing videos?<\/p>\n

If you nodded even once, the labelling requirement applies to you as well. But \u2013 and that is the good news \u2013 it is quite manageable once you have understood the logic.<\/p>\n

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What you need to label:<\/strong><\/p>\n
\u2022 AI in direct contact:<\/strong> Chatbots, voicebots and virtual assistants must identify themselves \u2013 clearly and at the very latest at the beginning of the interaction.

\u2022 Deepfakes:<\/strong> Deceptively realistic AI images, voices and videos must be disclosed \u2013 with a visible overlay on videos, not just in the description.

\u2022 Unchecked AI texts on topics of public interest:<\/strong> Anyone who publishes AI-generated texts without a human having checked them and assumed responsibility for them must label them as such.

\u2022 Emotion recognition and biometric categorisation:<\/strong> Those affected must be informed. Emotion recognition is even banned in the workplace and in educational institutions.<\/blockquote>\n

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What you do NOT need to label:<\/strong><\/p>\n
Here, most people breathe a sigh of relief \u2013 because much remains permitted without you having to do anything:

\u2022 Internal use:<\/strong> AI for drafts, research, summaries or translations does not trigger a labelling requirement. The decisive factor is publication.

\u2022 Editorially reviewed content:<\/strong> If a human reviews the AI draft, revises it and takes responsibility, the labelling requirement for the text no longer applies. By the way, that is exactly how we work \u2013 and that is exactly how you will learn it in our courses.

\u2022 Obvious AI:<\/strong> A clearly artificial robotic voice does not need any additional indication.

\u2022 Art and satire:<\/strong> A subtle, appropriate disclosure that does not disrupt the work is sufficient here.<\/blockquote>\n

How to correctly implement the AI labelling obligation \u2013 in 3 steps<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Step 1: Get an overview.<\/strong> Where are you using AI \u2013 in customer contact, in marketing, in internal communications? Without this audit, you are operating in the dark.<\/p>\n

Step 2: Decide for each piece of content whether it needs to be labelled.<\/strong> To do this, we have developed a decision tree with five simple yes\/no questions \u2013 from \u201eIs the content published at all?\u201c to \u201eHas a human checked it?\u201c. You will have your answer in under a minute.<\/p>\n

Step 3: Use pre-written phrasing.<\/strong> There is no legally prescribed wording \u2013 but there are proven templates. For example: \u201eHello! I am the AI assistant from...\u201c for the chatbot, or \u201eThis video was created with AI \u2013 avatar and voice are artificially generated\u201c for the avatar video.<\/p>\n

The only thing that matters is that the label belongs where the content is first perceived \u2013 not in the imprint.

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And if I ignore it?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Breaches can be punished with fines of up to 15 million euros or 3 per cent of total annual global turnover \u2013 milder criteria apply to small and medium-sized enterprises. But honestly: the greater risk is the trust of your customers. Anyone caught concealing AI stands to lose more than just fine proceedings. Conversely: those who deal with AI transparently demonstrate competence \u2013 and build trust.<\/p>\n

Whitepaper<\/strong>

Get the free white paper: \u201eAI must be identifiable\u201c<\/strong>
13 pages, free of legalese \u2013 created in collaboration with Marcel Helmcke, data protection specialist and lecturer at the Transmedial Akademie.

Inside you will find:
\u2022 the decision tree \u201eDo I need to label?\u201c \u2013 in 5 questions to the answer,
\u2022 ready-to-use phrasing \u2013 for chatbots, telephone, images, video, audio, and text,
\u2022 9 practical cases with step-by-step instructions \u2013 from website chatbot to public authority,
\u2022 the 10-point checklist for your business.\n

Download whitepaper for free <\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\n By the way: Labelling is only half the battle<\/strong>\n<\/h2>\n\n

\n Since February 2025, the AI Regulation requires something else:\n AI competence<\/strong> (Art. 4). Organisations must ensure that their employees are able to use AI competently. This is not a tedious duty, but a genuine opportunity \u2013 because anyone who understands how AI works not only labels properly, but also works better with it. That is precisely what our further training for is AI Prompter (Chamber of Commerce and Industry)<\/strong> \u2013 practical, up to 100 % eligible for funding via an education voucher, no prior knowledge required.\n<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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For a free initial consultation<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\nFAQ<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n\n
\n\nDo I need to label every email I write with AI?<\/strong>
\nNo. Internal and individual communication is not covered. The obligation applies to published content \u2013 and in the case of texts, only if no human has editorially reviewed and taken responsibility for them.

\n\nDoes the obligation also apply if I only use ready-made tools like ChatGPT or HeyGen?<\/strong>
\nYes. As a user, you are responsible for disclosing deepfakes and unverified AI-generated texts \u2013 regardless of who developed the tool.

\n\nIs a general notice in the imprint (\u201eWe use AI\u201c) sufficient?<\/strong>
\nNo. The labelling must be clear, unambiguous and placed where the content is first perceived \u2013 on the image, at the beginning of the video, in the first chat message.

\n\nWhat applies to AI systems that were already in use before August 2026?<\/strong>
\nThe machine-readable labelling obligations apply to them no later than 2 December 2026. The remaining obligations already apply.\n\n<\/blockquote>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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This post was created with AI assistance and was editorially reviewed and is the responsibility of Phuong Tran, Transmedial Akademie. This is how we put into practice ourselves what we explain here. This post is for general information and does not constitute legal advice.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n \n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seit dem 2. August 2026 gilt die Kennzeichnungspflicht fu\u0308r KI-Inhalte (Art. 50 EU AI Act). Was du
\nkennzeichnen musst, was nicht \u2013 und das kostenlose Whitepaper mit Anleitung.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","rank_math_focus_keyword":"ki-kennzeichnungspflicht","rank_math_title":"KI-Kennzeichnungspflicht seit August 2026","rank_math_description":"Seit dem 2. August 2026 gilt die KI-Kennzeichnungspflicht fu\u0308r KI-Inhalte. \u2013 Kostenloses Whitepaper mit Anleitung."},"categories":[1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","category-praxis"],"acf":{"reading_time":"10 Min.","ai_summary":"Seit dem 2. August 2026 gilt die KI-Kennzeichnungspflicht fu\u0308r KI-Inhalte (Art. 50 EU AI Act). Was du\r\nkennzeichnen musst, was nicht \u2013 und das kostenlose Whitepaper mit Anleitung."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3694"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3741,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3694\/revisions\/3741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/transmedial-akademie.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3694"}],"curies":[{"name":"Ordnance Survey","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}