AESIA — Spain's Dedicated AI Supervisory Agency, the EU's First, Operating With 23 Staff Against a Planned 70–80

Royal Decree 729/2023 (22 August 2023) created the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of Artificial Intelligence, an autonomous body under the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service. It began operating on 19 June 2024, six weeks before the EU AI Act entered into force, with headquarters in A Coruña and an office in Madrid.
Its mandate covers supervision, inspection and advice, technical recommendations, a regulatory sandbox, compliance guidance, and acting as single point of contact with the European Commission. It is designated lead market-surveillance authority for AI systems not covered by product-specific legislation, while the data protection authority (AEPD) and sectoral regulators keep their own competences, so coordination is central to the model.
Capacity is the documented weakness. In September 2025 the government told opposition deputies that AESIA had 23 workers, against an expected 70–80 civil servants plus contract staff; the agency itself had said in August that it had about 30 people and ongoing recruitment. In March 2025 it opened calls for 5 civil-servant posts and 10 temporary posts funded under the Recovery plan. The agency was operating from provisional offices while EUR 4 million of refurbishment for its permanent A Coruña building was planned over three years. A draft Organic Law on AI (June 2026) was still in parliamentary process.
Lesson: creating a dedicated AI regulator early gives a clear enforcement counterpart, but its effect depends on staffing and legal underpinning; no enforcement outcome data are yet published.

Read the full analysis: https://aesia.digital.gob.es/en