Building Europe’s AI future, together
Editor’s note: This week, Debbie Weinstein made her first public address at the European Business Summit in Brussels, which gathered European business leaders and policy makers. These remarks have been adapted from her speech and edited for brevity.
A new generation of European businesses
One of my favourite things about my role is that I get to work with leaders of businesses from all sizes, to make AI helpful to them and drive their growth.
Earlier in my career, I was a founder of a small children's food company. I know the challenges small businesses face.
When I look around Europe today, I see incredible opportunities for a new generation of visionary founders building the businesses to drive our region’s future economy.
The opportunity is now - with the shift to AI, a technology that gives businesses the most powerful toolbox they’ve ever had.
And the opportunity is here - because the talent in Europe today is as bright as anywhere else in the world, and it’s as promising as at any time I can remember.
Startups like Idoven, a Spanish startup who is on a mission to help doctors detect heart disease earlier - are standout examples of Europe’s potential.
And at Google, we are long term believers and investors in that potential. We chose to make our home in Europe in 2001 because we wanted to help bring access to information, technology, and opportunity to hundreds of millions of people.
Our relationship with Europe is a partnership - we live here, we build here, we’re part of the communities we serve across the continent.
We have over 40 Google offices and 31,000 colleagues based in Europe. We invest in major infrastructure - which supports connectivity across the continent - including a 5.5 billion euro investment in Germany just last week. We also chose to base our Security Operations Centres in Munich, Dublin and Malaga because of Europe’s deep commitment to privacy and security.
And of course, we have the Nobel prize-winning team at Google DeepMind driving scientific breakthrough after scientific breakthrough, with nearly one million users of AlphaFold across EMEA alone.
None of this would be possible without European talent and leadership and we are excited about the transformative opportunity here and now with AI.
At the same time, we speak with a sense of urgency - out of determination to make sure that future is secure, and the AI opportunity isn’t lost.
The urgency of the moment
Those brilliant, visionary European founders need an environment that champions their success. And they need it soon.
AI creates the potential to boost the regional economy by 1.2 trillion Euro within a decade. But right now, Europe lags far behind other regions in realising that potential. Only 14% of European businesses currently use AI, way below China and the US.
To put it simply: European businesses deserve the best AI tools and services - But they’re not currently getting them.
In my daily conversations with those businesses of all sizes across Europe, I hear 3 themes over and over again. They want access to the latest technology, simpler rules to clear the path to growth and the right skills to make that growth a reality.
Access to the best and latest technology
When it comes to providing access to the latest technology, Europe too often puts itself at a disadvantage. The latest Google AI models are 300X more powerful than the state of the art just two years ago.
So a European business building on old technology is wading through quicksand compared to its competitors elsewhere. This is true in all sectors:
In automotive, for example, the latest AI tools could mean upgrading from a basic voice assistant to a co-pilot that understands a driver is tired before an accident happens.
In cybersecurity, the latest tools are critical to countering sophisticated criminals who are using AI in skilful and dangerous ways.
Without that access, Europe will fall further behind as other regions surge ahead.
But rather than speeding up access to the cutting edge, we see some European governments doing just the opposite - taking steps to hold back the most advanced technology.
Simpler rules
European businesses - and citizens - need a simpler, clearer path to growth. But since 2019, we've seen over 100 EU regulations targeting the digital economy.
Mario Draghi’s report made it crystal clear that this is not sustainable. And it’s not just the number of regulations, it’s also abrupt policy shifts.
Businesses in the EU should be able to rely on a clear regime for training AI models responsibly, based on existing regulation.
We’ve seen this with the delay of Meta’s Llama multimodal models, with the restrictions of OpenAI’s Advanced Voice Mode - and with our own delays in launching AI Overviews and AI Mode which were both significantly slower to launch in Europe than the rest of the world.
Also, one-third of European developers at small tech companies have had to remove or downgrade features to comply with requirements.
European businesses, and citizens, deserve better.
To be clear, simpler rules does not mean an “anything goes” approach to regulation.
AI must be regulated - but it should be regulated well, in a way that doesn’t penalise businesses and hold back Europe’s competitiveness.
The release of the Commission’s Digital Omnibus yesterday is a step in the right direction to enable European businesses to compete globally.
But we would like to keep seeing bigger, and more significant strides to harmonize redundant digital regulations; provide enough time and clarity for more businesses to prepare for compliance; and ensure all digital regulations consider their effects on users.
Building the right skills
Finally, seizing the AI opportunity for Europe means giving people and businesses the chance to build the right skills - and with them, the confidence to be bold and take risks.
For sure, we need the data scientists and engineers to build the models and integrate them in products and services.
But we also need leaders and managers who can identify AI opportunities and a workforce in every field that is AI-literate, able to use these new tools safely and effectively.
To build that kind of workforce will take a long term approach.
Over the last decade, Google has worked with governments to help over 15 million Europeans learn digital skills to build their business or career.
We’ve also worked with more than 500 startups to support their growth.
We’re committed to playing our part in building the skills and training approach for the AI era.
And what we know from our experience over the past decade is that only a partnership approach can make a difference at scale.
That means the right tools and training for schools and it means programs that support the most vulnerable - like the 15 million euro AI Opportunity Fund, a collaboration between Google and civil society organisations across the region.
Throughout Europe, the next generation of businesses, founders and workers are working to seize the AI moment.
They’re the next chapter of a story Google has been proud to help write for almost a quarter of a century.
They deserve our support to access the best AI tools and services, a clearer path to growth and the skills to build with confidence in what comes next.
In turn, I have no doubt that they will play their part to help Europe realise the 1.2 trillion Euro opportunity of AI - and lead the world along the way.
I look forward to working with all of you to build that future together.
