EU AI Act Enforcement Starts August 2: Who's Governing Your Agents?

The EU AI Act’s high-risk rules took effect on August 2, 2026, activating requirements for risk management, human oversight, and conformity assessment.

Autonomous AI agents are treated as in scope even without an explicit definition, and many organizations still lack visibility and control over them.

The article argues that monitoring-first tools are not enough and proposes credential-brokered enforcement as a structural control model.

By preventing agents from holding credentials directly, this approach enables enforceable governance, audit trails, and stronger compliance with the Act.