In 2024, BSA | The Software Alliance continued its work with policymakers worldwide with a focus on driving responsible artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, data privacy, government procurement, and international data policy.
Check out some of the highlights from our exciting year as we prepare for 2025.
- AI Solutions: A Policy Roadmap to Spur AI Adoption
- Europe: AI Act & the Elections
- Engaging Across APAC Region
- States Pave the Way for US Movement on AI and Privacy
- Highlighting Member Company Voices
- Convening Members and Stakeholders to Tell the Tech Story
AI Solutions: A Policy Roadmap to Spur AI Adoption
BSA’s “AI Policy Solutions” outline comprehensive recommendations for policymakers worldwide to address AI-related issues. BSA’s solutions highlighted major AI issues and perspectives from enterprise software leaders, including:
- Protecting Privacy and Advancing Cybersecurity
- Investing in Research and the AI Workforce
- Promoting Transparency and Trusted Content
- Reducing Risk Through AI Governance
BSA also developed and put forward leading policy solutions that touched on a variety of AI topics over the past year, including setting priorities for standards development and AI accountability, posing essential questions for board leaders to guide companies’ adoption of AI, policy ideas to protect creators and counter unauthorized digital replicas, and measuring economies’ policy readiness to adopt AI.
Europe: AI Act & the Elections
Earlier this year, the European Union adopted its AI Act, an important milestone in building a comprehensive, risk-based framework for AI governance passed by a major economy or government.
BSA welcomed the European Parliament’s approval of the EU AI Act after considerable engagement with the EU institutions in recent years to provide detailed and constructive input.
Look back to earlier this year for BSA’s analysis and insights on the AI Act before its adoption and perspective on how development of the EU’s Code of Practice for General-Purpose AI Models is now playing out.
As policymakers worldwide consider their approach to AI, BSA is prioritizing a globally coordinated approach. For instance, BSA earlier this year hosted our Transatlantic Legislative Roundtable Series on AI with members of US Congress and EU institutions’ policy advisors, covering the AI Act, its functioning, and its implementation. Learn more about BSA’s advocacy on our AI microsite here.
Looking ahead, Europe enters 2025 with new political leaders after European citizens voted in June’s European Parliament elections. Prior to the elections, the Brussels team prepared a comprehensive set of recommendations for the incoming EU Commission, alongside major takeaways to emphasize key focus areas for the next five years.
On Dec. 1, as the new Commission officially took office, we mapped out the commissioners expected to significantly shape the tech landscape.
Engaging Across APAC
As governments across the APAC region began to form their approaches to AI policy, BSA actively weighed in with governments in Japan, Korea, and Australia to offer the industry’s perspective on a variety of AI issues.
A significant amount of policy activity additionally played out in Australia, as BSA engaged with government stakeholders ahead of expected updates to its privacy laws. BSA authored an op-ed in Australian media calling for clear controller-processor rules as part of an updated privacy law. And BSA staff testified before Australia’s parliament regarding cybersecurity policy.
BSA, along with its cross-sector partners, was additionally instrumental in pushing back against provisions in Vietnam’s updated Data Law.
States Pave the Way for US Movement on AI and Privacy
US states moved without hesitation on their own laws on AI and consumer privacy. This year alone, there were almost 700 AI-related bills, and policymakers anticipate another increase in the upcoming legislative sessions. Colorado passed the nation’s first comprehensive legislation to address the high-risk uses of AI, which BSA said requires continued work to implement. California additionally advanced several AI bills, about which BSA voiced concerns. Legislation in Connecticut, Texas, and other states will be in focus for 2025.
New trends are expected to emerge from the states regarding data privacy as states begin to move away from the legislation more closely aligned with the Connecticut and Virginia models. This means that states will instead move to modify existing comprehensive privacy laws to incorporate new protections for certain types of data.
The 2025 state session will hit the ground running in January, and BSA will be at the forefront of the conversation by incorporating member companies’ priorities and policy expertise to ensure that there is consistency that protects consumers’ rights.
Highlighting Member Company Voices
On various platforms and in several different formats, BSA showcased leading executive voices across our growing membership and around the world. On topics ranging from AI to cybersecurity and in the US, Europe, and APAC, BSA helped lead the conversation on tech policy issues at scale.
New Members: BSA welcomed Cohere, EY, Notion, OpenAI, and PagerDuty as new global members this past year, further expanding BSA’s reach across the enterprise software ecosystem to help impart more change on ever-evolving global policy issues.
Why AI Campaign: Building on the launch of this campaign in 2023, BSA featured over 25 member company voices speaking to why artificial intelligence offers unique benefits to businesses, governments, and communities. In 2025, featured contributions included:
- Why AI? Zoom’s Mahesh Ram on Increased Productivity with Zoom’s AI Companion
- Why AI? Cisco’s Jeetu Patel on How AI Helps Improve Security Resilience
- Why AI? Box’s Leah Perry on How Box AI Can Transform Enterprise Content Management
- Why AI? Dropbox’s Bart Volkmer on Reimagining the Way We Work
- Why AI? Splunk’s Jason Lee on Digital Resilience With AI
- Why AI? Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Company’s Newly Launched AI-Readiness Program
- Why AI? Microsoft’s Sarah Bird on AI’s Positive Impact on Communities Around the World
- Why AI? HubSpot’s Alyssa Harvey Dawson on HubSpot AI’s Impact on Customers
- Why AI? Asana’s Eleanor Lacey on Balancing the Speed of AI Development with Responsibility
- Why AI? PagerDuty’s Shelley Webb on Using Generative AI to Synthesize Data and Improve Customer Experience
- Why AI? SAP’s Etosha Thurman on How AI Helps Companies Focus on High-Value Work
AI Solutions: BSA member leaders offered a real-life vantage into how enterprise software companies are addressing AI issues.
- Leaders from Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and Rubrik spoke about how AI enhances cybersecurity.
- Autodesk and Cisco executives wrote about how to build AI workforce skills and best invest in research and development.
- Top officials at IBM and Adobe shared measures their companies have taken to build trust online and in authentic content.
- Executives at Workday and Docusign described the powerful ways AI governance can build trust in and adoption of technology.
AI@Work: This series showcases the enterprise uses of AI and the unique ways BSA members’ software and tools impact businesses and organizations.
- AI@Work: Kyndryl’s Digital Workplace Solutions CTO Discusses Embracing AI
- AI@Work: Rubrik’s Chief Product Officer on Increasing Efficiency With AI
- AI@Work: HubSpot’s CLO on Democratizing AI for Employees and Customers
- AI@Work: Atlassian’s GC on Harnessing the Potential of Every Team With AI
Tech-à-Tech Series: These short interviews with our EMEA members highlight the innovative contributions and thought leadership of BSA member companies to Europe’s tech industry. The first episode was released earlier this month.
BSA also organized members for high-impact discussions on the future trajectory of AI policy in India, how to prepare for post-quantum cryptography, policy ideas to more sustainably achieve our AI future, the policy outlook for Europe following EU elections earlier this year, and more.
Convening Members and Stakeholders to Tell the Tech Story
BSA held four Congressional briefings following the release of the reports on “AI in Government,” “AI in Agriculture,” and “AI in Education.” These briefings showcased BSA members and cross-sector initiative members who exhibited their expertise by explaining complex AI examples to Hill staff so they could better develop policy for these technologies.
BSA held sideline events at the RSA Conference and the International Network of AI Safety Institute’s inaugural convening. The RSA event featured Jen Easterly, Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other key stakeholders to discuss BSA’s “Cybersecurity for the C-Suite” document, which outlines how board members and executives should develop a plan to manage cybersecurity risk. During the reception in November, leaders of the US AI Safety Institute, including its Director Elizabeth Kelly, joined leaders from the United Kingdom and France to speak to their perspectives of global harmonization on AI regulation.
In May, the Brussels office co-hosted a breakfast panel, “From the EU to the World: Setting Trends in Digital Trade.” The participants shared their knowledge and thoughts on the current regulatory environment in digital trade, overcoming barriers to data flows and the ongoing negotiations between the EU and its global partners.
Ahead of the 2024 US elections, BSA convened a coalition of voices from across the tech industry to highlight the importance of innovation at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in Chicago and Milwaukee. BSA pulled member companies, government officials, and stakeholders together for conversations on the future of technology policy.
BSA’s second annual policy forum, TRANSFORM Dialogue, featured conversations with global industry leaders and government stakeholders. This included Ambassador of the European Union to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė; Special Assistant to the President, Principal Deputy US Chief Technology Officer, and OSTP Deputy Director for Technology Karen Kornbluh; and BSA CEO Victoria Espinel. Watch the segment featuring Kornbluh and Espinel here and find all the videos from the TRANSFORM Dialogue here.
Throughout the year, Software.org led two bicameral and bipartisan staff trips to New York and San Francisco, where senior congressional staff heard from member companies about AI innovation and how digital transformation is impacting every sector.