EU publishes Digital Omnibus leaving AI Act future uncertain
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# EU publishes Digital Omnibus leaving AI Act future uncertain
Nov 19, 2025, 5:14 pm EST | Masha Borak
Categories Biometrics News | Government Services
The European Commission unveiled amendments on Wednesday designed to simplify its digital regulatory framework, including the AI Act and data privacy rules, in a bid to boost innovation.
The Digital Omnibus package introduces several measures, including delaying the stricter regulation of ‘high-risk’ AI applications until late 2027 and allowing companies to use sensitive data, such as biometrics, for AI training under certain conditions.
High-risk AI applications include those in the field of biometrics, critical infrastructure, law enforcement, essential services, employment and administration of justice and democratic processes. Among the systems that could be classed as “high-risk” are biometric identification or categorization, as well as emotion recognition.
According to the AI Act, high-risk AI operators currently have significant regulatory obligations, including risk assessments. The simplification amendments would push the application of these stricter rules from August 2026 to December 2027.
Other changes to the AI Act involve exempting companies from registering AI systems in an EU database for high-risk systems if these are only used for narrow or procedural tasks.
The Digital Omnibus also attempts to adapt rules within privacy regulation, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the e-Privacy Directive and the Data Act.
The Commission plans to clarify when data stops being “personal.” This could open the doors for tech companies to include anonymous information from EU citizens into large datasets for training AI, even when they contain sensitive information such as biometric data, as long as they make reasonable efforts to remove it.
The amendments include measures aimed at simplifying business for tech companies, including cutting red tape for small and medium enterprises (SMEs)