A rule that has been sitting on the horizon for two years came into force on Sunday, and most South African businesses have not noticed it. From 2 August, content produced by artificial intelligence has to be labelled when it reaches an audience in the European Union. Fines run to fifteen million euros or three percent of worldwide turnover, whichever is larger. The rule attaches to where the content lands, not where your company is registered.
AI and the new labelling rules
AI content shown to European customers now has to be labelled
Article 50 of the EU AI Act became enforceable on 2 August 2026. It covers four situations. People must be told when they are talking to an AI system rather than a person. AI generated images, audio, video and text must be marked, both visibly and in a machine-readable way software can verify. Emotion recognition and biometric categorisation have to be disclosed. Deepfakes and AI written text on matters of public interest need clear labels.
There is some breathing room. Content published before 2 August does not need labelling retroactively, and the machine-readable marking has a grace period until December 2026 for AI systems already on the market. Assistive editing that does not substantially change your original meaning sits outside the rule.
Why this matters for your business: if you sell to Europe, ship to Europe, or simply have European visitors reading your site, you are in scope. Start with an inventory of every place AI touches what customers see, including product descriptions, blog images, ad creative and the website chat widget. The chatbot is the easiest fix and the most commonly missed, so make sure it opens by saying it is an automated assistant.
SEO and search
Google is adding handle swapping to Search Profiles
Google has started a small beta of a feature called Handle Swapping, letting a Search Profile take on the handle of any verified platform you have linked to it. One profile changed its handle between 2 and 4 August by pulling the name from a linked YouTube account. Google is telling testers it will launch broadly very soon. Search Profiles launched in June as a shareable page pulling together a publisher’s articles, social accounts and header image.
Why this matters for your business: most small firms here use different names across platforms, usually because the good handle was taken somewhere. That inconsistency is about to become visible, because Google is building a single public identity out of your linked accounts. Spend twenty minutes auditing what your business is called on every platform you own, pick the handle you want, and secure it wherever it is still free.
Google rewrote its guidance on fake calls and texts
The Google Business Profile help page on fraudulent calls and texts was updated this week. Google now explains how to recognise its official messages on WhatsApp, where the verified account carries a blue check and appears as Google Maps, and on RCS, where the registered sender shows as Google.
Why this matters for your business: WhatsApp is how South Africans communicate and how the scammers reach them. Someone phoning to say your listing will be suspended unless you pay is not Google, and Google does not charge for a Business Profile. Tell whoever answers your phone, because listing fraud succeeds on urgency rather than skill.
Social and paid
Google is testing clickable keyword links inside ad descriptions
Screenshots posted this week show Google Ads turning keywords into hyperlinks inside the description text of search ads. The link goes to the same landing page as the headline, and Google appears to choose which words to link based on what the person searched for. Google Ads has also added a setting that lets a text disclaimer override any description you pinned to position one.
Why this matters for your business: more clickable surface usually means a higher click-through rate, and if you pay per click that means a higher bill for the same number of sales. Watch click-through rate and cost per conversion together rather than celebrating the first number alone. The pinning change matters more than it looks. If you pin descriptions for legal or pricing reasons, check whether a disclaimer is now displacing them.
Meta started charging for its WhatsApp business agent on 1 August
The free trial window for Meta Business Agent closed on 1 August and token billing began. The rate is two US dollars per million tokens, roughly four to five US cents per WhatsApp conversation. The agent answers product questions, makes recommendations, books appointments, qualifies leads and hands difficult cases to a person. Meta says over a million businesses were already using it before billing started.
Why this matters for your business: at roughly eighty cents a conversation in rand, this is cheap against a staff member answering the same question forty times a day, and WhatsApp is where South African buyers already are. Set a spending cap before you scale it, because token billing rewards short answers and punishes rambling ones. Feed it your real price list and real stock, not marketing copy. And remember the labelling story above, because an agent that never says it is a machine is exactly what the new rules target.
Automotive
South African new vehicle sales hit a twelve year high in July
Naamsa reported 57,708 new vehicles sold in July, up 11.9 percent on the 51,558 sold in July 2025. Passenger cars rose 12.5 percent to 40,912 units, the strongest passenger month since September 2014. Light commercials rose 10.6 percent, medium commercials 19.4 percent and heavy trucks and buses 7 percent. July’s fuel price cuts get much of the credit. New energy vehicles more than doubled year on year in June, and about one in every seventeen new vehicles sold here is now electrified. Toyota led with 14,142 units.
Why this matters for your dealership: demand is not the problem this quarter, so the constraint is whether your website can absorb it. Check that your stock feed refreshes daily, because a sold vehicle still showing at the old price is the fastest way to lose a buyer. Build proper landing pages for the electrified models rather than burying them in a filter, since that segment is growing fastest and buyers research it hardest. Then look at your enquiry response time, because in a month this busy the dealer who replies within the hour takes the deal.
What to do this week
- List every place AI touches what customers see, and make your chat widget say it is automated.
- Audit your business handle across every platform you own and pick the one you want Google to show.
- Tell whoever answers your phone that Google never charges for a Business Profile.
- Check whether a text disclaimer is now overriding any Google Ads description you have pinned to position one.
- Set a monthly spending cap before you scale up a WhatsApp business agent.
- Watch for page and query level filtering in Bing Webmaster Tools, confirmed by Microsoft on 31 July.
If you are not sure whether the new AI labelling rules reach your business, get in touch and we will work through it with you.
Sources
- European Commission on transparency obligations under Article 50 of the AI Act
- Sidley on preparing for the 2 August 2026 transparency deadline
- A practical guide to the Article 50 transparency rules
- Search Engine Roundtable on handle swapping in Google Search Profiles
- Search Engine Roundtable on the updated Google Business Profile fraud guidance
- Google Business Profile help on protecting against fraudulent calls and texts
- Search Engine Roundtable on anchor text hyperlinks in Google Ads descriptions
- Search Engine Roundtable on the Google Ads text disclaimer override
- Tech Times on Meta Business Agent billing starting 1 August
- WhatsApp for Business on the Meta Business Agent
- Business Day on South African new car sales reaching a twelve year high
- The Citizen on the July 2026 new vehicle sales figures
- Search Engine Roundtable on filtering coming to Bing Webmaster Tools