AI Governance Across the Atlantic: The EU Artificial Intelligence Act
This study investigates how the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is catalyzing a systemic transformation in corporate governance and accountability frameworks. The research centers on the implications of the AI Act for corporations, focusing on the need for compliance in the governance of high-risk AI systems.
Transforming Corporate Governance
The AI Act compels companies to reconfigure internal responsibilities, redistribute oversight functions, and anticipate liability across their corporate structures. This act signifies a turning point that elevates algorithmic oversight from a mere technical consideration to an issue of enforceable compliance.
Impact on Board of Directors
The first strand of the analysis focuses on the board of directors. The AI Act’s requirements—such as human oversight, traceability, and documentation—significantly affect strategic decision-making when AI systems are integrated into core business processes. This shift necessitates that boards consider the regulatory landscape when making decisions that involve AI technologies.
Redefining Compliance Roles
Beyond board-level governance, the AI Act reshapes the everyday functions of various roles within the organization, including compliance officers, legal counsel, data governance leads, and product owners. Each role emerges as a point of regulatory contact within the firm. This transformation calls for a new model of distributed accountability that reflects the increasing entanglement of operational decision-making and legal exposure.
AI-Enabled Trademark Protection
The project also delves into the realm of AI-enabled trademark protection. Detection and enforcement systems—such as multimodal monitoring tools and automated takedown pipelines—are now bound by obligations of fairness, transparency, and auditability. The legal defensibility of these systems is becoming as crucial as their technical performance, requiring enhanced collaboration between brand protection teams, external platforms, and in-house legal functions.
Transatlantic Dimensions of AI Governance
This research also explores the transatlantic dimensions of these developments. While the EU AI Act imposes formalized compliance obligations, the United States is advancing through a hybrid model characterized by agency guidance, litigation exposure, and private standard-setting. This divergence creates both tension and opportunity for global firms operating in both jurisdictions.
Emerging Functional Convergence
The paper argues that a functional convergence is emerging around principles of explainability, role-based accountability, and institutional readiness, even though these principles are expressed through different regulatory frameworks. Corporate actors must therefore develop internal governance architectures that can withstand scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic, anticipating not only European enforcement but also evolving expectations from U.S. regulatory bodies, including the SEC and FTC, as well as the broader ecosystem of soft law and litigation risk.
