The Assurance Desk
Six AI engines, asked on 18 September 2026 about help with the EU AI Act, cited 111 sources between them, and 1 was official. It was the European Commission's AI Act Service Desk, cited once, by Perplexity. The other 110 came from 68 websites, none of them a government or regulator.
What did we ask the AI engines?
On 18 September 2026, we asked six AI engines two questions about the EU AI Act, in the words a buyer might type. The software question was “best ai governance software for eu ai act compliance”. The help question was “uk company with no eu office who can help with eu ai act compliance”.
We asked from the United Kingdom, with web search on, so each engine could look things up and cite what it found. For three engines, we saved the answer as a person sees it on screen. For the other three, we asked through their API, the route software uses to send an engine a question.
| Engine | How we asked it |
|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | The answer box on a Google search page, as a person sees it |
| Google AI Mode | Google's AI search, as a person sees it |
| Microsoft Copilot | Copilot search, as a person sees it |
| Google Gemini 2.5 Flash | Through Google's API, with Google Search on |
| Perplexity | Through Perplexity's API, with web search on |
| OpenAI GPT-4o | Through OpenAI's API, with web search on |
What did the AI answers cite?
The 12 answers cited 111 sources in all, from 69 different websites. All but one answer cited at least one source. Microsoft Copilot cited none for the help question.
One source in 111 was official, meaning a government or regulator site. Across all 45 questions we track on data protection, AI governance and cyber security, asked the same day and counted the same way, it was about 7 in 100: 154 official sources among 2,241.
| Engine | Software question | Help question | Official sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews | 10 | 10 | 0 |
| Google AI Mode | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Microsoft Copilot | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Google Gemini 2.5 Flash | 14 | 11 | 0 |
| Perplexity | 10 | 10 | 1 |
| OpenAI GPT-4o | 20 | 10 | 0 |
| All six | 67 | 44 | 1 |
Which websites did AI cite most on the EU AI Act?
Ten websites were cited 3 times or more. The one cited most was aiactindex.eu, 11 times, in 2 answers to the software question: 7 times by OpenAI GPT-4o and 4 times by Microsoft Copilot.
The website in the most answers was kosmoy.com, in 4 answers from 4 different engines. None of the ten is a government or regulator site.
| Website | Times cited | Answers that cited it | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| aiactindex.eu | 11 | 2 | Software |
| evecore.com | 4 | 1 | Software |
| kosmoy.com | 4 | 4 | Software |
| aicompliancevendors.com | 3 | 1 | Software |
| complylayer.com | 3 | 2 | Software |
| eyreact.com | 3 | 3 | Help |
| kla.digital | 3 | 3 | Software |
| modulos.ai | 3 | 2 | Software |
| openkit.co.uk | 3 | 2 | Help |
| rmoklegal.com | 3 | 3 | Help |
What is the AI Act Service Desk?
It is the European Commission's website for help with the EU AI Act, and it was the one official source in the 111. Perplexity cited it once, for the help question.
Its home page is the AI Act Single Information Platform. It says the Act came into force on 1 August 2024. Its tools help you work out whether the Act gives you legal duties, and what steps to take to comply.
That is the first question for any business, whether it builds AI or only uses it.
What the AI Act Service Desk offers
- AI Act Explorer Read the Act by chapter, annex and recital.
- Compliance Checker Check whether an AI system or a general-purpose AI model meets the Act's requirements.
- Contact the Service Desk Send a question about the Act, in your own language. A team of experts working with the EU AI Office answers it.
- AI Act Timeline The key dates for the Act, up to 2 August 2028, with the changes made by the Digital Omnibus on AI.
Where can a UK business get help with the EU AI Act?
For names, an AI answer can be a good start, with links you can open and read for yourself.
For what the law says, start with the official sources. The AI Act Service Desk lets you read the Act, check whether it applies to you and send a question.
Our guide, What does the EU AI Act ask of a UK business?, sets out what applies now, what comes next and the dates, in plain terms.
How we did this
We asked each engine each question once, on 18 September 2026, from the United Kingdom, with web search on. We recorded every link each answer cited. When one answer cited the same link more than once, we counted each one.
A source counts as official when its web address ends in .gov.uk, .gov or europa.eu, or when it is the ICO's site, ico.org.uk.
We name each engine by what we ran. OpenAI GPT-4o is the model we asked through OpenAI's API, which is not the same as the ChatGPT app.
The limits: two questions, one day, one run per engine. AI answers change from day to day, so a later run can cite different sources.
The full data, answer by answer and link by link, is in our data file.
Read next
Sources
- The Assurance Desk: AI answers on the EU AI Act, measured 18 September 2026 (data file), checked 2 October 2026
- European Commission, AI Act Service Desk: AI Act Single Information Platform, checked 2 October 2026
- European Commission, AI Act Service Desk: Timeline for the Implementation of the EU AI Act, checked 2 October 2026
This is an independent editorial guide, not legal advice.