The AI Act: the regulation no company can afford to ignore
In this episode of The Valley Podcast, host Isa welcomes two expert guests to discuss the impact of artificial intelligence on businesses and, in particular, the AI Act, the European regulation on artificial intelligence that comes into force in August. The guests are Ana Villalba, director of The Valley Business and Tech and a specialist in talent development and corporate training, and Alejandro Touriño, managing partner at ECIJA and one of Europe’s most recognised legal voices on technology and innovation.
The conversation begins by setting the scene for the current state of AI: whilst some companies are still figuring out what to do with tools such as ChatGPT, others are already automating entire processes and making decisions based on AI. In this context, Touriño explains that the AI Act is a European regulation to be applied uniformly, with a phased entry into force and based on a risk-based approach: there are prohibited uses (as they seriously affect fundamental rights, such as influencing human free will), high-risk uses subject to strict obligations, and low- or no-risk uses with minimal obligations.
Ana Villalba offers the perspective of training and talent, pointing out that companies are still at an early stage of adoption: they know they must use AI, but they lack a clear strategic plan on how to implement it and how to train their teams. Both agree that there is a ‘two-speed’ coexistence: on the one hand, organisations that are progressing more slowly due to a lack of governance and training; on the other, employees who are already using generative AI in their day-to-day work on an individual basis, sometimes without supervision (the so-called ‘AI cowboys’ within companies).
The talk delves into the risks — strategic, legal and reputational — faced by companies, and draws a parallel with the GDPR (data protection), highlighting that both regulations share the format of a European regulation and generate similar tensions when coexisting with technologies developed outside Europe (the US and Asia), trained under different rules.
The debate is also addressed as to whether this regulation hampers European innovation in the face of Asian scalability and the US drive for innovation, although both argue that a clear regulatory framework builds trust and can become a competitive advantage, rather than an obstacle.
A key point is training: one of the AI Act’s primary requirements is to ensure employees are literate in the use of AI. Villalba emphasises the concept of lifelong learning and anticipates the emergence of more cross-functional professional profiles — with critical thinking, sound judgement and business acumen — rather than purely technical ones. Touriño agrees that roles and job opportunities will emerge that do not even exist today, particularly for creative professionals and those with divergent thinking.
Towards the end, they discuss corporate governance (mapping permitted and prohibited uses, creating policies, controlled pilot schemes and future AI audits comparable to financial audits) and the penalties under the AI Act, which can reach 35 million euros or 7 per cent of a company’s global turnover. Both agree that the motivation for adopting AI correctly should not be the fear of penalties, but rather the competitive advantage it represents.
The episode ends with a reflection: the conversation about AI isn’t really about tools, but about people, and the companies that know how best to train their teams to work alongside this technology will be the ones that succeed in leading the future.
Listen to the podcast here