AI Act (EU) 2024/1689 and machinery: AI requirements after Regulation 2026/1744

Under the AI Act an AI system is high-risk, among other cases, when it is a safety component of a product covered by certain EU product legislation, or is itself that product, and the product requires third-party assessment. Machinery is among those products.

Typical examples: a vision system that stops a robot when a person enters the area, or a safety function that adapts through machine learning. An AI that only optimises production, with no safety function, is a different case.

The Machinery Regulation itself already requires notified body assessment for safety components and machines whose behaviour evolves, fully or partly, through machine learning.

Regulation (EU) 2026/1744, the Digital Omnibus on AI, was published in the Official Journal on 24 July 2026 and has been in force since 27 July 2026. For machinery, according to the sources consulted:

• it moves to a sectoral approach, to avoid overlaps between the AI Act and the Machinery Regulation: for these machines the AI Act applies only to a limited extent;
• the Commission must add the requirements for high-risk AI systems to the Machinery Regulation through delegated acts, which must apply by 2 August 2028;
• until harmonised standards or common specifications for AI exist under the Machinery Regulation, systems that comply with the AI Act harmonised standards are presumed to meet the Machinery Regulation's essential health and safety requirements.

For the other high-risk systems under the AI Act, deadlines generally moved to 2 December 2027.

1. Identify the machines where AI performs a safety function.
2. Document for every serial number the model and software version delivered, and how they are updated.
3. Follow the Commission's delegated acts and the harmonised standards: they will set the concrete requirements.

TARGA records the software history and publications for every serial number, so the versions delivered stay traceable for years.