Business in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) moves with dizzying speed. More powerful models launch regularly, bringing new opportunities and risks. Fresh use cases emerge daily, increasingly leaning on the orchestration power of agentic AI. Innovation boundaries recede as the cost of inference declines and robotics accelerates. It’s as if we’re permanently on fast forward.
I reflected on the speed of change with Samantha Garretto at Politico recently. A year on from our first meeting, the debate on AI in Europe has become more grounded, more urgent and more practical. There is now much more awareness of what AI can do, its limits and how to make it work.
But as AI develops at pace, the goalposts shift, meaning Europe’s leaders must accelerate in four areas: sovereignty, scale, security and sustainability.
Sovereignty: Go hybrid
Geopolitical tensions are disruptive — but can also be a catalyst for change. Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, combined with flux in international norms, have sharpened calls for Europe to develop greater strategic autonomy — especially in energy, defense and technology.
