Note: article published on 14 May 2026 on the basis of the provisional agreement reached on 7 May 2026 between negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. The final text still has to be formally adopted by the co-legislators before 2 August 2026. The exact wording may evolve before final adoption. This article reports on the current state of play, it is not a legal analysis. For a specific case, consult a lawyer specialising in the AI Act.
In the night from Wednesday 6 to Thursday 7 May 2026, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU emerged from the trilogue in Brussels with a provisional agreement on the Digital Omnibus on AI (Council of the EU, press release of 7 May 2026). For industrial maintenance, the agreement rules out the scenario of a dual AI Act plus Machinery Regulation regime. Regulatory pressure remains, but under a single sectoral framework. Platforms such as Mimorian, which models industrial equipment and supports technicians in their diagnostic reasoning so that every intervention enriches the plant's collective memory, see their design trajectory confirmed: human oversight, traceability, European hosting.
On 28 April, the trilogue had failed
A week before the agreement, the trilogue session of 28 April 2026 had ended without a deal. The main sticking point concerned the fate of products already covered by sectoral EU safety legislation (machinery, medical devices, radio equipment, toys). Should they continue to be subject to dual conformity, AI Act plus sectoral, or move to a single regime? European manufacturers, through DIGITALEUROPE, had been warning for months about the cost of a dual conformity assessment, estimated at around 600,000 euros per SME in the first year (DIGITALEUROPE, 7 May 2026: AI Omnibus, machinery breakthrough).
The agreement of 7 May settled the matter. Not across all sectors, but on the one that directly concerns industrial maintenance: machinery.
What was decided on 7 May
The provisional agreement contains four main measures for manufacturers.
1. Postponement of the high-risk deadlines. The obligations applicable to high-risk systems are pushed back: 2 December 2027 for Annex III (standalone systems: biometrics, critical infrastructure, education, employment, justice), 2 August 2028 for Annex I (systems embedded in products covered by sectoral legislation). Without this agreement, these obligations would have applied from 2 August 2026, while the supporting framework (harmonised standards, notified bodies, guidelines) was not ready (Bird & Bird, May 2026: Provisional Agreement at May Trilogue).
2. Machinery carve-out. Products covered by the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 are moved from section A to section B of Annex I of the AI Act. In plain terms: an AI-equipped product that already falls under the Machinery Regulation will no longer be subject to the AI Act's specific "high-risk" requirements. It will only have to comply with the obligations of its own sectoral legislation. Dual conformity is avoided. Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE, summed up the matter in one phrase: "Draghi 1, Red Tape 0" (DIGITALEUROPE, 7 May 2026).
3. Article 50(2) maintained. The obligation to mark in machine-readable form the synthetic content generated by AI (audio, image, video, text) remains applicable on 2 August 2026, in line with the AI Act's initial timetable. A transitional period until 2 December 2026 is introduced for systems already on the market before that date.
4. New Article 5. The agreement adds an explicit prohibition of AI systems generating child sexual abuse material or non-consensual intimate images. Not directly linked to industrial maintenance, but a signal of the text's coherence.
For maintenance, the centre of gravity lies elsewhere
⚠️ The trap to avoid: interpreting the failure of 28 April as an indefinite postponement. The timetable for the application of Annexes I and III remains unchanged. Moving the analysis date delays manufacturers' internal trade-offs, not the obligations from Brussels.
The machinery carve-out shifts the regulatory centre of gravity for a manufacturer using AI in maintenance. The question is no longer "AI Act on this piece of equipment", it is "Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 on this piece of equipment, supplemented by forthcoming AI delegated acts".
The European Commission has indeed been empowered to adopt delegated acts under the Machinery Regulation, in order to add health and safety requirements concerning AI systems classified as high-risk (Taylor Wessing, May 2026: the political deal). This mechanism avoids a legal vacuum while respecting the specialisation of frameworks: machinery safety remains regulated by the machinery authorities, not by the AI authorities.
For an AI maintenance supplier, and for its industrial clients, several obligations remain in force. They are simply carried by a different legal framework.
| Topic | Status after the 7 May agreement | Applicable legal framework |
|---|---|---|
| Mapping of AI systems in the plant | Remains mandatory | AI Act + sectoral |
| Technical documentation and traceability | Remains mandatory | Machinery Regulation + forthcoming delegated acts |
| Human oversight (HITL) | Remains mandatory | Machinery Regulation + forthcoming delegated acts |
| AI Literacy (Article 4 AI Act) | In force since February 2025 | AI Act |
| Prohibited practices (Article 5 AI Act) | In force since February 2025, extended in May 2026 | AI Act |
| GPAI: transparency and documentation | In force since August 2025 | AI Act |
| GenAI watermarking (Article 50(2)) | Applicable 2 August 2026 | AI Act |
| Third-party conformity assessment (machinery) | Applicable 20 January 2027 | Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 |
| Specific embedded high-risk AI requirements | Applicable via Commission delegated acts | Machinery Regulation + delegated acts |
Three nuances to keep in mind. First, the agreement of 7 May is provisional. It must be formally adopted by the Parliament and the Council, and will go through a legal and linguistic review before official publication. The timetable targeted by the institutions is final adoption before 2 August 2026. Second, the Commission's delegated acts under the Machinery Regulation have not yet been written. Their exact content, which will concretely define what a manufacturer will have to demonstrate, will come after final adoption. Third, the medical sector did not obtain the same carve-out as machinery. Medical devices remain subject to dual conformity, Medical Device Regulation plus AI Act (DIGITALEUROPE, 7 May 2026). A point of vigilance for manufacturers who operate both conventional production lines and pharmaceutical sites.
The consolidated 2025-2028 timetable for a manufacturer
Five dates to connect, without piling on jargon.
- 2 August 2025: transparency and documentation obligations for general-purpose AI models (GPAI). In force.
- 2 August 2026: Article 50(2), marking of synthetic content. Transitional period until 2 December 2026 for pre-existing systems.
- 20 January 2027: entry into application of the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 (EU-OSHA, Machinery Regulation). Third-party conformity assessment for certain categories.
- 2 December 2027: Annex III obligations (standalone high-risk AI) enter into application under the AI Act.
- 2 August 2028: Annex I obligations (AI embedded in regulated products) enter into application under the AI Act, except for the machinery carve-out which remains under the sectoral regime.
The postponement does not change the course. It moves the entry bars and redistributes the regulatory burden between the AI Act and sectoral legislation. For a maintenance manager, the work to be done between now and 2027 does not change either: map the AI uses already in place, require human oversight and traceability from suppliers, distinguish those who have already done the work from those who will scramble to catch up.
Conclusion
The agreement of 7 May 2026 clarifies a point that many manufacturers had been waiting for: dual conformity, AI Act plus Machinery Regulation, is ruled out for machinery. Regulatory pressure remains, but under a single framework, which will be specified through the Commission's delegated acts. For industrial maintenance, the angle of attack remains the same: documented human oversight, traceability from prompt to response to action, European hosting, mapping of AI uses. These choices generate value whatever the final legal status.
For a more complete decoding of the postponement timetable and its implications, read our article of 6 May 2026: AI Act postponed to 2027 and 2028: what it really changes for industrial maintenance. To move to the operational stage, the AI Act industrial maintenance action plan consolidates the 2026 to 2028 milestones and the design choices that secure compliance from today. For an overview of the subject, read our complete guide: What is trustworthy AI in industry? A complete guide for maintenance.
Sources :
- Conseil de l'UE, communiqué du 7 mai 2026 : Council and Parliament agree to simplify and streamline rules
- DIGITALEUROPE, 7 mai 2026 : AI Omnibus welcomes machinery breakthrough but warns medtech left behind
- Bird & Bird, mai 2026 : Digital Omnibus on AI Provisional Agreement Reached at the May Trilogue
- Taylor Wessing, mai 2026 : The EU Digital Omnibus on AI, what the political deal means
- Règlement (UE) 2024/1689 sur l'IA, EUR-Lex
- EU-OSHA, Machinery Regulation 2023/1230
- TÜV Rheinland, New Machinery Regulation EU 2023/1230