When Regulation Slows Revolution: Are Global AI Policies Creating a Two-Speed World?
8 experts shared their view
As AI continues to redefine industries worldwide, we are starting to see clear differences in innovation speed driven by regional policies. In the U.S., where AI is largely left to evolve freely, progress has been explosive: new models, tools, and integrations appear almost daily.
Meanwhile, the EU's heavy regulatory approach has created friction: many AI platforms launch features only in non-EU markets, simply because it's easier to bypass the region than comply with complex rules. Even ChatGPT behaves differently there - responses can feel noticeably "dumber" or less informed due to restricted data access. On the other end of the spectrum, countries like Russia limit access to major AI platforms altogether, effectively removing themselves from the global AI race. These contrasts are creating a growing imbalance in capabilities, innovation, and competitiveness across regions.
Question to the panel:
Will the gap in AI innovation and adoption continue to expand between global regions as a result of their differing policies and levels of regulation? How will these disparities shape global competitiveness, technology leadership, and even geopolitical stability in the years ahead? And is there a realistic way to find the middle ground, regulating AI responsibly without strangling innovation?
It's abundantly clear that the US hyperscalers are unable and unwilling to regulate themselves. A $100 million pro-AI super PAC formed in August, backed by OpenAI's president, has identified its first pro-legislation target to oust.
The UK/EU is right to form AI Legislation to curtail the worst excesses. It has learned from the lack of regulation around Social Media, which has moved from a fun, comms channel to toxic megaphone for the worst humans.
China has less access to high-end AI tech, but its researchers make up for this in academic skills and hard work, witness DeepSeek using ChatGPT to distil its own better, smaller models. There is likely to be a big, "sub-prime AI" type stock market correction (bubble burst) that will scare investors. So far, the Gen AI hype by vendors and consultancies greatly exceeds its value.
The next innovations may come in neuro-symbolic AI, which is a mix of machine learning and symbolic or rules-driven AI. The US is weak in this area - it depends on foreign skills. The next AI innovations are likely to come from the old-world university ivory towers and start-up labs in UK, France, Germany, Spain, etc., plus Beijing.
Related article by Fergus Boyd
The divergence in AI regulation is less about "innovation versus control" and more about who will define the operating system of the future economy.
The US optimises for velocity and scale; the EU for rights, accountability, and systemic risk. In practice, this creates a structural tax on European innovation—not through talent deficit, but regulatory friction. That tax manifests in delayed rollouts, fragmented compliance, and reduced experimentation.
In hospitality and adjacent sectors, this isn't theoretical. AI now drives pricing, labour planning, service design, and asset optimisation. Regions deploying and iterating at scale will compound advantages in margin, guest experience, and capital efficiency. Those constrained by unclear rules risk becoming mere capability importers.
A credible middle ground requires three conditions: risk-based, sector-aware regulation rather than blanket lawmaking; regulatory sandboxes enabling real-speed learning between operators and supervisors; and international baseline standards on safety and rights, with regional flexibility.
Failing this, AI policy becomes geopolitical self-harm rather than strategic advantage. The question isn't whether Europe can innovate—it demonstrably can—but whether its regulatory architecture allows competitive velocity. In a compounding-returns environment, speed isn't everything, but sustained friction is fatal.
Yes, the gap in AI innovation and adoption will continue and expand. This disparity is less about well-intentioned policy and more about an ongoing geopolitical battlefield where technology sits squarely in the 'armed forces' of the major powers.
Capability has already well and truly outpaced government oversight and the speed of legislation. Nations that favor innovation velocity—or, in the singular case of China, possess centralized control and a willingness to enforce their position—will accelerate their lead.
Global competitiveness will largely mirror the past: technical capability is closely entwined with economic and military might in this disturbing new world. The concentration of AI capabilities intensifies global power imbalances.
The divergence in policy is simply a reflection of the political spectrum's approach toward commerce and its citizenry. The EU's upfront, high compliance costs create regulatory arbitrage, diverting development and talent to less burdened jurisdictions like the U.S., exacerbating the productivity lag.
Governments without effective control mechanisms were already lost with social media; AI is an entirely different level of impact and speed. Legislation is well behind, and in this arena, that delay is a direct accelerator of the two-speed world.
Great question, Ira. Unfortunately, yes, regulation is a major barrier to AI innovation, particularly in the EU.
We saw similar patterns during the rise of Big Data - the 4th Industrial Revolution 10 years ago. Instead of enabling digital leadership, Europe's strict regulatory frameworks, like GDPR have significantly hindered innovation. And now, with AI - the 5th Industrial Revolution - deeply reliant on vast data sets, the EU risks falling even further behind. Many already believe the race is lost.
While ethical oversight is crucial, the reality is stark: companies aiming to stay competitive in AI must either shift operations out of Europe (what we are doing) or navigate an environment so constrained that progress becomes economically unfeasible. For every AI developer, you need a data protection officer and an IT lawyer before you even write code. This is not where innovation thrives.
Unless a balanced regulatory model emerges - one that protects rights without strangling progress - we will see a widening gap in global AI capabilities. The U.S. and China will lead. Europe will regulate itself into irrelevance and further economic downturn.
So the question becomes not how we regulate AI responsibly, but whether we can afford to keep doing it in isolation.
I have been ranting about this since the early days of GDPR/DMA, because the same pattern keeps repeating. The EU writes rules with the ambition to tame the future, but what it really produces are thriving markets for VPNs... Regulation becomes an inconvenience for users, a gift for intermediaries, and a drag on countries that already struggle to keep pace.
The result is not a safer world, just a (more) fragmented one, where machine intelligence evolves at different speeds depending on the passport you carry.
We already saw this in our industry. The parity regulation created, paradoxically, more rate leakage, the DMA crippled Google's UX for hotels, and the cost of direct bookings is rising to a point where giving everything back to the OTAs almost makes sense again.
Sure, we do need rules, but not this symbolic kind. We need frameworks that defend workers, such as mandatory human employment thresholds, protections for jobs displaced by automation, and the introduction of a universal basic income.
If the goal is to preserve human dignity, then regulate for that. If the goal is simply to slow the machines in one continent while they sprint in another, then just f*ck it...
The global gap in AI innovation will expand in the coming years. As major global economies, the USA's innovation-first approach versus the EU's rights-based regulatory model creates polarisation.
A "two-speed world" is emerging, creating a competitive gulf for globalised, tech-reliant industries. In innovation-friendly regions (North America, Asia, etc.) hotels can quickly deploy hyper-personalised AI services, using smart Revenue Management Systems for massive cost and efficiency gains. Meanwhile, the EU's AI Act, while ensuring data safety, slows AI innovation and adoption with strict regulations and high compliance costs. The result? Less seamless and less personalised experiences, reducing the competitive edge in an AI-driven, experience economy.
Technology leadership is rapidly consolidating too. Few US-based companies control the powerful foundational AI models. This economic imbalance creates global dependence, forcing sectors worldwide (including Europe) to rely on foreign-controlled tech stacks for core functions. This perceived "strategic weakness" fuels tech-nationalism, risking the fragmentation of the global tech ecosystem.
The middle ground? Urgent adoption of adaptive frameworks, like regulatory sandboxes, allowing safe testing for innovators. This must be backed by global harmonisation of technical standards, with an open-source, collaborative approach to cut cross-border costs. But I'm not sure if this will happen in the near future.
Yes, the gap is widening. The U.S. is moving faster because it gives the technology room to grow. Speed becomes an advantage when the whole world is trying to build on the same breakthroughs.
The EU has taken the opposite path. Its intent is good, but the over regulation slows things down and keeps some of the best tools out of the market (not to mention regulation and tax policies that incentivize the best founders to leave). Over time, that turns into a real disadvantage. You can't lead if you're always a version behind.
I don't think this will hold and believe that the EU will loosen its approach because it has to stay competitive. Their policy won't be a free-for-all one, but they'll deploy simpler rules that don't block progress as much. Countries that shut AI out entirely will fall even further behind.
The middle ground is pretty clear to me: protect people, but don't over-engineer the process through cumbersome regulation. Let the technology develop, step in where there's real risk, and keep the door open for new ideas. The regions that strike that balance will set the pace for the next decade.
Yes, the gap will widen with the adoption of AI. In our eyes, the real problem isn't with the regulation of AI; it lies with technology developers who are not accounting for global policies to make these friction points irrelevant. Too many platforms are built for a hypothetical world without rules, leaving you to clean up the operational mess when reality hits. This is especially true if you're a multinational enterprise of hotel properties.
The only way, as a hotelier, to bridge this divide is to stop bending your operations to fit rigid technologies. If your AI software can't handle the nuance of multiple regions' data laws without breaking the guest experience, it's the wrong software. Hoteliers need to focus on technology that flexibly adapts to their specific operational needs. Don't allow a vendor's inability to navigate compliance become a staff problem. Your tools should handle the complexity so your team can get back to enhancing guest experience in hospitality. Ultimately, technology regulation only slows revolution in our industry when the technology responsible for adapting to new rules does not.
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