Because it's traditional to leave a grace period before enforcing a new law. Think of it as a leftover from the days when everything was done on paper and part of a large company's hiring process for some positions might involve printed materials whose wording had to be decided a couple of months in advance.

It's probably a paperwork thing. Odds are good nobody running a company that small is relying on AI. The real culprits of this kind of bullshit are bigger companies. The small outfits I've worked for at this scale didn't really have "HR". And let's face it, they're doing so much under the table shit already they aren't gonna report it even if they do.

Just a guess. Not HR or manager or anything like that, just someone that's seen the government reporting differences between small companies and large.