AI agent deployments touching employee work in EU jurisdictions with co-determination law (Germany BetrVG §87, Netherlands WOR Art. 27, France CSE provisions) require works council consent before activation in 2026. Most US-headquartered AI vendors lack a customer-success workflow for this, producing a class of stalled rollouts that read as 'vendor delay' but are actually compliance gaps. Total EU-site timeline from selection to production is 6-9 months when handled well, 12-18 when consultation begins late.

Cross-domain: EU labour co-determination law intersected with multinational AI rollout planning. Statutory anchors: BetrVG §87 (DE), WOR Art. 27 (NL), Code du travail CSE provisions (FR). Pairs with OPS-038 at the SMB end of the same labour-relations surface (CAO/Tarifvertrag at 4-employee scale).