By the end of this module, you will be able to implement AI systems that are fully compliant with AI Act 2026, mitigate hallucinations and bias, ensure security and ethics, and prepare for the future of autonomous AI agents.
You will learn:- AI Act 2026 practical compliance guide
- Hallucination and bias mitigation techniques
- Security and ethical frameworks
- Future trends: Autonomous AI agents
- GDPR integration with AI systems
- Risk assessment and management
Practical AI Act 2026 Guide for Prompt Engineers
This section integrates an operational and legal guide to the AI Act (EU Regulation 2024/1689), which becomes fully applicable from August 2, 2026. Its goal is to ensure trustworthy AI in the EU, protecting safety and fundamental rights through a risk-based approach. Fines for non-compliance are severe: up to €35 million or 7% of annual global revenue.
The 4 AI Act Risk Categories
| Risk Category | Definition & Obligations | Practical Examples for Prompt Engineers | Recommended Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNACCEPTABLE | BANNED in the EU. Bans effective from February 2025. | • Creating prompts for social scoring or subliminal manipulation • Systems exploiting vulnerabilities of vulnerable groups • Emotion recognition in work/school |
Avoid completely. No "workaround" is legal. Focus on ethical applications. |
| HIGH RISK | Strict compliance mandatory before market placement. Obligations effective from August 2026. | • Systems for personnel selection (CV screening) • Credit assessment or access to essential services • Safety components in critical infrastructure (transport, energy) |
Assess if falls in this category. If yes, plan conformity assessment, detailed technical documentation, mandatory human supervision. |
| LIMITED RISK | Transparency obligations. Effective from August 2026. | • Chatbots (customer, internal) • Systems that generate realistic content (text, images, video/audio) • Emotion recognition (outside work/school) |
Communicate clearly to users they're interacting with AI. Implement watermarking/marking for generated content (e.g., deepfake). |
| MINIMAL RISK | No specific obligations under AI Act. | • Spam filters, AI games, content recommenders (movies, music) • Productivity tools (correctors, summarizers) for internal use |
Maintain voluntary registry. Still respect GDPR and other regulations. Great area for experimentation. |
Italy has integrated the AI Act with national legislation (Law 132/2025), effective from October 10, 2025. This law strengthens protection in specific sectors:
- Work: Prohibits "indiscriminate surveillance" via AI (e.g., non-consensual emotional analysis) and strengthens workers' right to transparency about algorithmic decisions.
- Healthcare and Intellectual Professions: AI can only support decisions (of doctors, lawyers, etc.), which remain under exclusive human responsibility.
- Deepfake: Introduces the crime of "illicit dissemination of generated or altered content" with penalties up to 5 years.
Exercise 5.1: Risk Analysis and Redesign
Scenario: You've designed an AI agent that analyzes customer emails and automatically assigns a satisfaction score ("satisfied", "neutral", "angry") that determines response priority.
- In which AI Act risk category does this system likely fall? Why?
- Which specific obligations (see table) apply?
- Redesign the system to reduce its risk category, describing changes to workflow and prompt.
1. Risk Category: Limited Risk → it's a sentiment analysis system influencing a service (customer support).
2. Obligations: Transparency (inform users), right to explanation, possibility of human appeal.
3. Redesign:
Revised System:
1. The AI doesn't assign priority, but suggests a classification.
2. Every email classified as "angry" is automatically sent to a human operator for validation.
3. The prompt includes: "You are a sentiment analyzer. Your output is a SUGGESTION. Classify as: SUGGESTED_Satisfied, SUGGESTED_Neutral, SUGGESTED_Angry."
4. Users are shown: "Our system has suggested this classification to best handle your request."
Exercise 5.2: "By Design" Compliant System
Scenario: You need to create a support tool for company lawyers that analyzes standard contracts.
- Write a system prompt that incorporates Law 132/2025 principles for intellectual professions (support, not replacement; human responsibility).
- Design the output format to be presented to the reviewing lawyer, including mandatory fields for their final decision.
- List the data that should be logged for each use to create an audit trail.
1. System Prompt:
You are a contract review assistant. Your role is to RAISE POINTS OF ATTENTION and SUGGEST AREAS FOR ANALYSIS based on common patterns.
**FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES:**
- DO NOT provide definitive legal interpretations.
- DO NOT make decisions.
- Final responsibility is always with the reviewing lawyer.
- For each suggestion, indicate the basis (e.g., "common atypical clause", "potential ambiguity").
- If uncertain, suggest "consulting specific case law".
2. Output Format:
**DOCUMENT: [Contract Name]**
**AI ANALYSIS (Suggestions):**
1. [Point of attention 1] - Basis: [ ] - Estimated Risk: Low/Medium/High
2. [Point of attention 2] - Basis: [ ] - Estimated Risk: Low/Medium/High
**HUMAN REVIEWER SECTION:**
☐ AI analysis verified
☐ Final decision on point 1: [Accept/Modify/Delete]
☐ Final decision on point 2: [Accept/Modify/Delete]
**Lawyer's Notes:** [_________________]
3. Data to Log: Lawyer ID, timestamp, document name, points raised by AI, lawyer's final decisions, review time.
Exercise 5.3: Hallucination and Bias Mitigation
Critical scenario: AI system for legal support that:
- Analyzes case law (10,000+ judgments)
- Suggests legal strategies
- Predicts trial outcomes
- Generates document drafts
Identified risks:
- Hallucinations: cites non-existent judgments
- Bias: favors certain types of clients/lawyers
- Overconfidence: presents speculation as facts
- Security: sensitive data leakage
- Legal: liability for incorrect advice
Task: Design a 4-layer mitigation system with:
- Specific prompt engineering
- Technical architecture (RAG, validation layers)
- Human processes (review, oversight)
- Monitoring and alerting
- Incident response plan
4-LAYER HALLUCINATION MITIGATION SYSTEM
========================================
LAYER 1: PROMPT ENGINEERING
- System prompt: "You are a legal assistant. ALWAYS cite specific source.
If unsure → 'Insufficient information available'.
Confidence scoring: high/medium/low for each statement."
- Few-shot examples with correct citations
- Mandatory output formatting
LAYER 2: RAG ARCHITECTURE
- Vector database: 10k+ judgments (ChromaDB)
- Retrieval: top 5 most relevant documents
- Citation enforcement: each statement → source
- Fallback: "This information is not in the database"
LAYER 3: VALIDATION PIPELINE
- Auto-validation: model verifies its own statements
- Cross-check: second model validates first model's output
- Fact-checking: regex for dates, names, references
- Confidence threshold: only output >80% confidence
LAYER 4: HUMAN OVERSIGHT
- Flag system for high-risk statements
- Mandatory attorney review for strategic advice
- Audit trail: who approved what and when
- Continuous feedback loop corrections → training
MONITORING METRICS:
- Hallucination rate: target <2%
- Citation accuracy: target >95%
- Attorney satisfaction: target >8/10
- Response time P95: target <10s
INCIDENT RESPONSE:
1. Immediate rollback to last known good version
2. Root cause analysis (prompt, data, model)
3. Correction implementation
4. Retesting and validation
5. Communication to affected users
6. Prevention measures update
Future: Autonomous AI Agents
Autonomous AI agents represent the next evolution in AI systems. These are AI systems that can:
- Operate independently to achieve defined goals
- Use external tools and APIs autonomously
- Learn from interactions and improve over time
- Make decisions within defined boundaries
- Collaborate with other AI agents and humans
Exercise 5.4: Designing Autonomous Agents
Scenario: Design an autonomous AI agent for content marketing that:
- Analyzes trending topics daily
- Generates content ideas based on trends
- Creates and schedules social media posts
- Analyzes engagement and optimizes strategy
- Reports weekly performance
Task:
- Define the agent's goal and constraints
- Design the prompt architecture with tool usage
- Create safety mechanisms and human oversight points
- Define success metrics and monitoring
- Plan for unexpected scenarios and failures
AUTONOMOUS CONTENT MARKETING AGENT
===================================
AGENT GOAL: Increase engagement by 20% while maintaining brand voice and compliance.
CONSTRAINTS:
- Never post without human approval for sensitive topics
- Budget limit: €500/month for promoted content
- Daily time limit: 2 hours autonomous operation
- Content must be fact-checked before publishing
PROMPT ARCHITECTURE:
System: "You are an autonomous content marketing agent with these tools:
1. web_search(topic): Get trending information
2. analyze_engagement(data): Calculate metrics
3. generate_content(brief): Create posts
4. schedule_post(content, time): Plan publishing
Daily workflow:
1. Search trending topics in [industry]
2. Generate 5 content ideas
3. Create 2 posts for today
4. Analyze yesterday's engagement
5. Adjust strategy based on data"
SAFETY MECHANISMS:
- Human approval required for: political content, sensitive topics, >€100 spend
- Automatic fact-checking via trusted sources
- Sentiment analysis to avoid negative brand association
- Daily activity log for review
SUCCESS METRICS:
- Engagement rate increase
- Follower growth
- Brand sentiment score
- Cost per engagement
FAILURE SCENARIOS:
1. Unexpected trend (real-time alert to human)
2. API failure (fallback to manual mode)
3. Negative engagement spike (automatic pause)
4. Budget exceeded (automatic shutdown)
MONITORING:
- Real-time dashboard with key metrics
- Weekly automated report
- Monthly human performance review
🎉 Course Completed!
View CertificateYou now have all the skills to design, implement, and manage professional prompt engineering systems in 2026. Remember: technology evolves, but the fundamental principles (clarity, specificity, ethics, measurement) remain valid. Continue experimenting, measuring, and improving.
Suggested next steps:
- Implement at least 3 exercises in a real environment
- Participate in prompt engineering communities
- Follow regulatory evolution (AI Act updates)
- Experiment with new models and techniques
- Contribute to open source projects