How do AI Act, GDPR and NIS2 governance connect?
An AI system that processes personal data on critical infrastructure touches all three frameworks simultaneously: the EU AI Act governs the AI system itself, GDPR governs the personal data it processes, and NIS2 governs the cybersecurity of the infrastructure it runs on.
Managing these as separate compliance projects creates fragmented evidence, inconsistent risk assessments, duplicated effort, and gaps at the intersections. A compliance operating system manages them together — with shared evidence, unified responsibility, and one governance record per system that spans all applicable regulations.
Key points
- The same AI system may require: an AI risk assessment (AI Act Art. 9), a DPIA (GDPR Art. 35), and a cybersecurity risk assessment (NIS2 Art. 21). These are separate obligations with shared evidence.
- The same evidence artefact — a TOM profile, a vendor assessment, a data governance record — may serve obligations across all three frameworks.
- The same responsible person may need visibility across all three compliance contexts for the same system.
- Separate tooling for each regulation creates silos: the AI compliance team, the data protection team, and the cybersecurity team each have their own records for the same system.
- Integrated governance means one system of record, one approval chain, and one audit trail — with multi-regulatory obligation mapping.
Why it matters
The EU regulatory landscape is converging. AI systems are not just AI-regulated — they are data-regulated and infrastructure-regulated simultaneously. Organisations that treat each regulation as a separate compliance project will find themselves managing three parallel governance processes for the same system, with three sets of evidence, three approval chains, and three audit trails. This is unsustainable at scale and structurally fragile at audit.
How EAB approaches this
EAB is a compliance operating system that spans all three frameworks. The Platform provides AI Act governance. The GDPR Module manages data protection. The NIS2 Module covers cybersecurity governance. The GDPR–AI Act Bridge connects the intersections. One system of record. One audit trail.