We are in the AI honeymoon phase. The more we learn the more we like it. The more we learn the more we use it. The more we learn the more it learns. The more we learn the more we fear it. Some of those fears are legitimate.

Words have an impact. How we communicate, and the tools we use, can have positive or negative effects on our message and people. When we create tools and content for marketing and communications they have positive effects on progress but potentially negative effects on the global population and their progress.

Recognizing these risks, the European Union has drawn up regulations in the form of an AI Act.

The Europen Union’s AI Act

The European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is part of a broader AI policy and the first of its kind worldwide. It regulates AI technology development and use. It was designed to make sure AI systems respect fundamental rights and ethical principles.

The AI Act has been in force since Aug 1,2024, and will be fully regulated by Aug 1, 2026 through a step-by-step process, starting with prohibitions within February 2025, followed by embedding into AI models and added transparency measures.

Potential Issues using AI for Communications and Content

AI opens up the world to all of us and democratizes creativity, skills, and access to information and resources. AI and Language models open up global communication, giving us the tools for personal and international business growth. The use of generative AI, along with enabling real-time multilingual interactions, brings some potentially serious issues in communication that can lead to damaging brand trust.

Lack of cultural understanding and nuances and promoting bias can lead to miscommunications. It may impact your business operations so it is a good idea to start to be aware of the regulations in terms of communications. Take steps to put in place a system of governance that makes it easy to transition and adapt to the legislation quickly.

The 4 EU AI Act Risk Levels on Business Communications and Global Brand Image

The AI Act establishes 4 risk levels that may impact your business operations, Here below we outline some of the examples of AI use you need to be aware of in international communications and in your diversity practices.

Unacceptable Risk – Prohibited AI Use

The development and use in the EU of AI applications that pose a serious threat to fundamental human rights or safety are prohibited.

Prohibited uses in communication can cause biases and limit opportunities for diverse peoples around the world.

AI uses in communications and the global movement of people that is prohibited can include:

• Surveillance with real-time language transcription without consent
• Social scoring of people’s language use based on speech patterns
• The scoring of exams that may affect someone’s professional life
• Visa Application Management

Tips: easy, don’t use them, sell them or develop them in the EU (or better yet, anywhere.)

High Risk – Strick Compliance Required

AI systems that significantly impact user’s rights or safety need to be strictly controlled and overseen in order to ensure fairness across the globe.

High risk uses can can cause inequality. Automated decisions based on biases can ruin someones opportunities and change the course of their life.

In multilingual communications high risk uses of AI in communications and the global movement of people can include:

• AI for legal or medical interpreting where errors could have serious consequences
• Automated hiring tools using NLP to screen candidates that may cause bias
• Datasets that may have discriminatory data
• Remote biometric identification systems, except in narrow exceptions where necessary for some legal purposes

TIPS: Make sure you do a risk assessment before deploying AI in any high risk use cases. Do rigorous data quality checks & linguistic validation, and apply human oversight measures to minimize your risk

Limited Risk – Transparency Obligations

AI applications that directly interact with users and could pose a potential but limited risks require full disclosure of AI use.

AI content and communications speed up the spread of information but can also spread misinformation and manipulate humans. In one instant an AI chatbot has been blamed for the suicide of a 14 year old teenager and a lawsuit has been filed against the developers Character.AI and Google.

Limited risk cases of AI use in content creation, communications and multilingual communications can include things like:

• Chatbots, and multilingual chatbots or virtual assistance
• AI-generated text summaries or translations to help users understand content quickly
• AI-generated text, audio and video created for public interest

Tips: Be sure your AI contents clearly state that it was created with AI to minimize any risk and that your tools clearly state that users are interacting with a machine AI to ensure transparency and clarity. Make sure any training you feed your tool has gone through linguistic validation first and localized by a cultural expert if you are operating globally.

Minimal Risk – Few or No Regulatory Requirements

Low-risk applications that have not (yet) been considered harmless or are minimally harmful. A good portion of our daily AI use for innocent fun or improving our personal output quality or efficiency falls into this category.

We are still in an generative AI honeymoon period and need to be wary that we still use our critical thinking skills as humans and companies are responsible for putting out any content or communications.

Low Risk AI use cases for communications are considered good sense and really

• Grammar & spell-check tools for proofreading in different languages.
• Basic language translation software for personal or non-commercial use.

Tips: Adhere to ethical standards and get any AI output reviewed by humans to detect bias, and errors to enhance user trust and brand image and to make sure your contents converts with your target market.

Assess your AI Language Applications based on these 4 risk categories. Take action now to streamline your commercial AI use and generative AI use for content, communications, multilingual communications and global business to ensure growth while maintaining ethics and fairness.

Read more about the European Commissions AI Act and how it effects your global expansion and global business strategy,