Some EU rules on Artificial Intelligence (AI) will apply in Northern Ireland, the UK government has said.
However the regulation of AI in NI will largely be a matter for the UK government and Stormont.
EU rules will only apply to physical goods which have an embedded AI system.
They will apply due to the Windsor Framework, the Brexit deal which keeps NI inside the EU’s single market for goods.
The EU’s AI Act was passed in 2024 and in 2025 the European Commission proposed that the parts concerning goods should apply in NI. That has been under negotiation with the UK since then.
The government said: “The EU AI Act does not apply to NI in full. It applies only where an AI system is closely integrated with a tangible physical product that is placed on the NI market.
“It would not affect an NI business simply because it uses online or downloadable AI tools to manage work, analyse data, or carry out business functions.
“It would also not place obligations on the developers of those tools for their use in NI, unless the AI is closely integrated into a physical product placed on the NI market.”
The Cabinet Office minister Hamish Falconer said the addition of the AI rules to the Windsor Framework would not create a new regulatory border with the rest of the UK.
“The regulation will mainly apply to physical products in scope of the Windsor Framework, that already adhere to EU law,” he said it a written statement to parliament.
“This provides Northern Ireland manufacturers certainty on their unique dual market access to the EU market and the rest of the UK market.”
Falconer added that the government’s assessment was that “products subject to prohibitions or high-risk requirements are currently relatively rare, and that in any case, businesses supplying NI in many affected sectors are typically EU-facing meaning they will comply with EU law requirements”.
Examples of products which will be covered by the EU laws include a smart speaker with a built-in AI voice assistant or a smart watch requiring a manufacturer’s AI health monitoring app.
The main idea of the EU law is to regulate AI based on its capacity to cause harm to society. The higher the risk, the stricter the rules with some AI applications being banned.
The government’s examples of some physical products which could be banned include “a connected toy embedding AI that encourages children to undertake increasingly risky activities in exchange for reward or praise” or “an AI-connected camera with voice recognition that detects employee emotions , external.”
In general terms when the EU’s rules on the regulation of goods are updated the UK government has to agree which of them should apply in NI.
In some circumstances the NI Assembly also has a vote on the matter.
