Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The Trump Administration's focus on trade continues to impact tech companies.
Speaker 2: Apple is seeking relief from President Trump's tariffs on goods
Speaker 2: imported from China with more investments in the US. Trump
Speaker 2: also signed a memorandum on Friday to counter digital services
Speaker 2: taxes some countries imposts on US tech giants. All of
Speaker 2: this as the US is competing to lead the way
Speaker 2: in AI and quantum computing. Here to unpack the impact
Speaker 2: of these developments is Victoria Espadel, CEO of the Business
Speaker 2: Software Alliance. Victoria, It's pretty clear that President Trump has
Speaker 2: declared himself pro innovation, pro technology, but what do you
Speaker 2: make of the way he's going about it?
Speaker 3: So, as you say, I think the administration has been
Speaker 3: really transparent about what their goals are in terms of
Speaker 3: innovation and competition, and it's interesting to see them approaching
Speaker 3: it in a variety of different ways. Some are focus
Speaker 3: on trying to promote US industry, some are trying to
Speaker 3: are focused on trying to protect US industry. But you're
Speaker 3: seeing this across trade. I think you're going to see
Speaker 3: it in the AI Action Plan that the administration is
Speaker 3: going to be working on soon. We are hoping that
Speaker 3: quantum competitiveness will be part of what the White House
Speaker 3: is focused on. So I think you're going to be
Speaker 3: seeing this in a number of areas.
Speaker 1: Your whole role is advancing enterprise software companies, leadership and
Speaker 1: global policies. So how much are they having their voices
Speaker 1: heard when we see the latest impact on Digital Services Act?
Speaker 1: But then also what's happening with China and the impact
Speaker 1: that has on an Apple for example.
Speaker 3: So it's you know, you raise a Digital Services Act.
Speaker 3: It's true that that's an act that has more of
Speaker 3: a focus on social media companies, for example, rather than
Speaker 3: enterprise software. There are, but there are so many impacts
Speaker 3: that the atrump of administration can have I think, including
Speaker 3: many in a positive way on enterprise software. Some of
Speaker 3: the issues that are front of mind are not ones
Speaker 3: that are going to be impacted by enterprise so for
Speaker 3: exampleple speech issues. You know, there's a lot that's happening
Speaker 3: that's really positive from AI enterprise and AI software that's
Speaker 3: not going to be impacted by those. But on the
Speaker 3: other hand, I think the administration has a real opportunity
Speaker 3: to lead in terms of digital trade. I think they
Speaker 3: have a real opportunity to lead in terms of AI adoption.
Speaker 3: And you know, there's so much there's so much focus
Speaker 3: and attention to building the large LM models, and of
Speaker 3: course that's important, but what we really need to have
Speaker 3: the broadest positive economic impact is AI adoption across a
Speaker 3: wide range of industries. And that is something that I
Speaker 3: think there's real potential for the administration to take the
Speaker 3: lead on.
Speaker 1: And companies have been trying to think of Microsoft and
Speaker 1: really focusing in on the consumer applications with the mastaff
Speaker 1: are soonly went to high for example, and proportion of
Speaker 1: him Victoria. What is it then the companies that you're
Speaker 1: talking with, and that companies currently are trying to navigate
Speaker 1: and maybe be politicking as we see with Tim Cook,
Speaker 1: how what do they really want? Is it clarity or
Speaker 1: is it actually that they do want change here?
Speaker 3: So let's talk about AI and what's happening in AI
Speaker 3: regulation And I would say, you know, speaking for enterprise software,
Speaker 3: I think there are at a broad level, there are
Speaker 3: three things that we want. First, we are pro regulation.
Speaker 3: We think it makes sense to have regulation. What we
Speaker 3: don't want is bad regulation. And what I would characterize
Speaker 3: bad regulation is regulation that's unworkable regulation that is addressing
Speaker 3: the wrong issues, So I think that's important. Second, there
Speaker 3: needs to be clarity. One of the hindreds is the
Speaker 3: innovation we have right now is there's so much churn
Speaker 3: in the system. Is regulation coming is it not? Who
Speaker 3: will it apply to? Who will it want? And that
Speaker 3: is an enormous drag on a company's ability to innovate
Speaker 3: and plan forward. And then the third thing that we
Speaker 3: need is consistency. The thing that is even worse than
Speaker 3: lack of clarity is inconsistency across different laws being passed
Speaker 3: by the US States, different laws being passed by other
Speaker 3: countries that are in conflict for on one another. And
Speaker 3: that is even more of a problem if you are
Speaker 3: a small company, that is going to have even more
Speaker 3: difficulty dealing with those. So no bad regulation, clarity and
Speaker 3: consistency are three things that are critical if we are
Speaker 3: going to continue to move forward.
Speaker 2: Victoria, you mentioned the small players. A lot of the
Speaker 2: headlines come from the big tech giants, But what do
Speaker 2: some of the policies that you're thinking about, How would
Speaker 2: that affect perhaps some of the smaller technology companies. Would
Speaker 2: it only benefit the large incumbents.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: I think actually, in many cases the biggest positive impact
Speaker 3: will be on the smaller companies, so they won't be
Speaker 3: held down by, for example, unworkable or inconsistent regulation. I mean,
Speaker 3: there's so much happening in the AI policy space, but
Speaker 3: here are two things that I would emphasize, and I
Speaker 3: think these will have an impact on all companies, including
Speaker 3: and perhaps in particular small companies. One is at the
Speaker 3: federal level. So in terms of what's happening here in Washington, DC,
Speaker 3: a focus on promoting AI adoption is something that we're
Speaker 3: expecting to see and there's been support for that in
Speaker 3: the past, but we're expecting a lot more activity this
Speaker 3: year coming year on AI adoption. But the second thing
Speaker 3: I would say is that any company that wants to
Speaker 3: understand what is happening in AI regulation right now has
Speaker 3: to be looking at what is happening in the states.
Speaker 3: There is the US States. There's a tremendous amount of
Speaker 3: activity there. We're very focused there. You had Colorado pass
Speaker 3: the first comprehensive AI law last year, but now you
Speaker 3: have Texas, Connecticut, Virginia, California. They all want to be next,
Speaker 3: and that the states are going to move legislation and regulation.
Speaker 3: So when you talk about all companies, but in particular
Speaker 3: small companies trying to deal with this the regulation that's coming,
Speaker 3: and trying to deal with inconsistencies that we may see there.
Speaker 3: If that comes to pass, that is going to be
Speaker 3: a big drag on innovation points.
Speaker 1: Victoria Espanel from the Business Software Alliance, thanks so much
Speaker 1: for joining us.