European policymakers are presently altering a tyre on a transferring automobile. They’re navigating the implementation of the AI Act whereas concurrently participating in essential reflections on how the Act may be simplified and on the way forward for the GDPR. The central query: How do we discover the best steadiness between empowering companies to leverage the complete potential of AI and guaranteeing privateness safety stays uncompromised?
The findings from the Cisco 2026 Information and Privateness Benchmark Examine, launched right now, present a transparent reply. To remain aggressive, regulatory approaches should meet the brand new realities of AI and allow companies to maintain tempo with speedy technological change. There’s an pressing want, highlighted each by business suggestions and ongoing coverage debate, to maneuver in the direction of modernised agile knowledge governance frameworks.
Privateness as a Development Enabler
For years, privateness was usually framed in coverage circles as a defensive necessity, a brake on innovation. Our newest examine means that narrative fails to color the entire image. Right now, 90% of organisations globally (86% in Europe) report that their privateness programmes have expanded particularly due to AI, and 93% plan to extend investments in knowledge governance over the subsequent two years.
An amazing 99% of organisations report at the very least one tangible profit from privateness investments. However the nature of that profit has modified. It’s not nearly compliance or avoiding fines. For instance, 94% of European organisations report that strong privateness frameworks unlock AI agility and innovation, and 93% recognise privateness is important for constructing buyer belief in AI-powered companies.
Bridging the Governance Hole
Whereas AI ambition is excessive, governance continues to be evolving. Despite the fact that 82% of EU organisations report having a devoted AI governance physique in place, solely 9% describe these constructions as mature.
One of many key bottlenecks is knowledge governance. Information is the lifeblood for AI coaching, fine-tuning, and inference. However 60% of organisations battle to entry the high-quality, related knowledge wanted to coach and deploy AI successfully, with many pointing to the related price of information preparation and governance as a key barrier to AI success.
Whereas corporations have to spend money on knowledge governance, policymakers are starting to recognise in addition they have to streamline overly advanced knowledge necessities that act as an inhibitor to AI success of their jurisdictions. In consequence, the EU is proposing to simplify a number of the knowledge governance necessities for AI coaching by way of reforms to the GDPR within the so-called ‘Digital Omnibus’ regulation.
Information Localisation vs. International Realities
One of the crucial urgent tensions in Europe includes knowledge localisation and digital sovereignty. Whereas the impulse to maintain knowledge inside borders is comprehensible, the operational actuality for companies is much extra nuanced than “black-or-white” political messaging suggests.
In keeping with the 1,700 safety and privateness professionals we surveyed within the EU, 72% say they face heightened demand for knowledge localisation and international knowledge complexity attributable to AI. For the EU’s digital objectives, it’s a important warning signal that 84% of organisations discover that knowledge localisation provides price, complexity, and danger to cross-border service supply.
We’re additionally seeing a shift in safety perceptions in Europe. The belief that regionally saved knowledge is inherently safer is eroding, falling from 91% in 2025 to 83% in 2026. In the meantime, 79% of organisations working globally imagine that global-scale suppliers are higher geared up to handle advanced, multi-jurisdictional knowledge flows than native entities.
To foster a aggressive AI ecosystem, Europe should deal with these “international strain factors.” The examine reveals that 83% of respondents assist extra harmonised worldwide knowledge switch guidelines to streamline compliance.
A Name for Modernisation
As the controversy over a GDPR evaluation continues, we should be sure that our knowledge safety framework evolves to deal with AI. The EU should champion a regulatory setting that favours interoperability-at-scale over isolation. By modernising Europe’s method to cross-border knowledge flows and specializing in streamlined knowledge governance, coverage can assist accountable, safe innovation at velocity.
Extra on this on this Q&A with Dev Stahlkopf, EVP and Cisco’s Chief Authorized Officer and on Cisco’s Belief Heart.
