The EU’s AI Regulation, or “AI Act,” will gradually come into effect starting in early 2025 and already regulates the development and use of AI systems intended for use in Europe. With this comprehensive set of regulations, lawmakers are facing a major challenge. The impact of AI technologies—which are driving massive transformations across national borders—is to be managed through democratic processes to the extent that major risks can be identified and avoided. This approach takes into account that AI is a constantly evolving field and cannot be viewed or assessed in isolation from its context of application. In practice, this also means that both developers and users of AI systems must adapt to new obligations and learn not only to use AI systems appropriately but also to assess their risks in specific individual cases. The AI Act also explicitly calls for the development of specific AI literacy among users. It is clear that new regulations always entail new burdens that companies, government agencies, and civil society must now shoulder. The academic community can also contribute to ensuring that this effort succeeds on a broad scale.
Domenik Wendt is a professor of civil law, European business law, and European law at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences and a recognized expert on AI law and the AI Act in particular. In the Digitalgespräch, he explains what the key elements of the AI Act are and which ones are already in effect today. He describes how companies and government agencies are preparing to implement the EU’s requirements and what support is available to help them understand and comply with the AI Act in their own contexts. Together with hosts Marlene Görger and Petra Gehring, Wendt discusses how regulation and capacity-building are intertwined, how it is possible that while the AI Act completely bans certain applications and strictly regulates others, it nevertheless allows more room for innovation and development than some might fear—and whether the AI Act is capable of reducing risks and preventing harm, even in light of the profound societal impacts of AI systems.
Episode 72: Digitalgespräch with Domenik Wendt of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, 18th of November 2025
Further Information:
To Digitalgespräch Episode 48 “The EU’s AI Act: How it came about and how it regulates AI” with Domenik Wendt : https://zevedi.de/digitalgespraech-048-domenik-wendt-2/
To the AI-Service Desk of the Bundesnetzagentur: https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/Digitales/KI/start_ki.html
To the Hint-Paper „KI-Kompetenzen nach Artikel 4 KI-Verordnung“ of the Bundesnetzagentur: https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de/DE/Fachthemen/Digitales/KI/_functions/Hinweispapier.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2
To the Paper „KI-Kompetenzanforderungen nach Art. 4 AI Act. – Juristische Analyse und praxisorientierte Maßnahmen“ with Involvement of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences: https://zenodo.org/records/17407983
all episodes of Digitalgespräch
The podcast is in German. At the moment there is no English version or transcript available.