REUTERS NEXT – SAP CEO urges Europe to unite and ease AI rules to stay competitive

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By Kritika Lamba and Krystal Hu

Dec 4 (Reuters) – Europe needs a more unified market and lighter-touch regulation to stay competitive in artificial intelligence as the U.S. and China accelerate investment and deployment, SAP CEO Christian Klein said on Thursday.

Speaking at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York, Klein said Europe is “more important than ever” in a fast-changing geopolitical environment but “stands in its own way … regulating where nothing has to be regulated.”

“We need more Europe, but we need a united Europe. We need much less regulation,” he said, arguing that early-stage AI needs room to scale before the bloc codifies strict compliance regimes.

Beyond regulation, Klein said Europe should play to its strengths rather than trying to replicate the U.S. or Chinese strategies.

“We have great talent in Munich, Paris and eastern Europe. We have strong industries — automotive, manufacturing — but they are under huge pressure from high energy and labor costs,” he said. “Europe should focus on vertical use cases where we have expertise and data, not just building more data centers.”

Klein’s comments come as Brussels revises the rollout of the EU’s landmark Artificial Intelligence Act. In November, the European Commission proposed a “Digital Omnibus” to streamline tech laws and delay enforcement of the Act’s strictest high-risk rules to December 2027 from August 2026.

These cover sensitive uses like biometric ID, job applications, health services and law enforcement. The package also seeks to simplify cookie consent and update GDPR to allow firms such as Google, Meta and OpenAI to use some personal data for AI training under new safeguards.

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(Reporting by Kritika Lamba in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)