The consultation, published on 29 July, is designed to inform a strategy intended to ensure that AI complements human creativity rather than displacing it, broadens access to culture and knowledge, and underpins what the Commission calls "a fair, sustainable, innovative and competitive" creative economy across the EU.
Officials say the questions raised by AI in this field cut across technical, economic and societal lines, from copyright and access to data to digital skills, transparency and the risk that smaller cultural organisations are left behind by larger technology firms.
The call is open to everyone: artists, creators and rights holders, professional associations, AI developers and providers, researchers, public authorities working on culture or AI policy, and members of the public. Submissions can be made via the European Commission's Have Your Say portal.
The initiative is one of the actions in the Commission's Culture Compass for Europe, the strategic framework adopted by the Commission to guide EU cultural policy, and is aligned with the Joint Declaration "Europe for Culture – Culture for Europe". It also builds on the Commission's broader Apply AI strategy and will be closely aligned with the Commission's ongoing review of EU copyright rules, for which a separate call for evidence—covering, among other things, the challenges generative AI poses for licensing and rights enforcement—closed on 25 June 2026.
Under the Apply AI Strategy, the Commission has already set out a series of measures for the sector, according to an account published on the Commission-run Futurium platform, which hosts the Apply AI Alliance forum coordinated by the digital policy department, DG CONNECT. These include backing for micro-studios specialising in AI-enhanced virtual production, investment in European AI models for immersive storytelling and for the discoverability of European music, media and literary content online, and support for pan-European platforms that use multilingual AI to translate and distribute content from professional news outlets. The Commission also plans a study into the legal and technological challenges raised by AI-generated content, including copyright questions and detection tools for infringing material, and support for the development of highly realistic 3D digital twins of cultural sites and artefacts.
A dedicated EU strategy for AI in the cultural and creative sectors — the document this call for evidence will feed into — is due in the first half of 2027, according to the Commission.
