To earn that trust, industry needs to up its game, regulators need to weed out problems, and both should work together to raise the bar for a trustworthy digital future. In strengthening technology sovereignty, the EU should focus on building trust – choosing partners that have displayed their trustworthiness, data stewardship, and security in Europe for decades, regardless of the geographic location of their headquarters.

Earning trust means handling data responsibly. It means developing open source solutions. It means explaining AI clearly and making it accountable. It means upskilling society in order to future-proof jobs. And it means using precision regulation to target negative practices and fix tangible problems while avoiding unintended economic consequences.

A new European Commission and European Parliament is an opportunity for industry and the EU’s decision makers to work together in three areas:

Enhancing Responsibility for the Digital Future

The public and private sectors need to work together to strengthen collective responsibility around areas such as: targeted regulation to strengthen trustworthy AI; regulation to drive online platform responsibility; supporting the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) efforts on digital tax; and stimulating new technologies that accelerate sustainable growth.

Open solutions, standards, interoperability, data flows and international collaboration all offer unparalleled benefits to the European economy. They create a flexible environment in which emerging technologies can flourish.

EU policy makers and businesses can successfully collaborate to: develop trustworthy self-regulatory codes of conduct for cloud services providers; ensure that digital trade is part of trade agreements; continue international collaboration in EU research programmes; boost blockchain take-up in the public and private sectors; and build European HPC capabilities and IP.

Promoting Inclusion and Skills

AI will transform 100 percent of jobs and revolutionise the skills required to succeed in 21st century careers. Companies and governments must recognise their workforces are a strategic renewable asset. Education, re- and up-skilling are essential to helping students and professionals build the right skills for the digital era. Inclusion must underpin workforce development.