On 2 August 2026 the AI Act enforcement regime for high-risk systems went live. Fifteen days later we have the first market data: which documents supervisory authorities actually request, what the first wave of information requests looks like, where European factories are stumbling most often. This article gathers facts from the first two weeks of Annex III enforcement in EU manufacturing — no marketing, with concrete cases and a realistic list of items an MES must have in order first.

On 2 August 2026, the EU AI Act high-risk rules become fully enforceable. A subset of MES functions — predictive maintenance tied to machine safety, operator performance monitoring, AI in medical-grade quality control, and AI-assisted workforce decisions — may be classified as high-risk, with fines up to €15M for breaches. This article maps concrete MES modules to Annex I and Annex III, lists the seven obligations of high-risk operators, and gives a 3-month action checklist for plant owners.