Predictions Preview: What Next for AI and Regulation?

Next week marks a cornerstone event in CCS Insight’s annual calendar: Predictions for 2025 and Beyond. On 8 and 9 October, we’ll present insights garnered from extensive research, private reflections, and internal and external conversations, painting a picture of the technology landscape as we envision it in the coming years.

We invite you to register now for Predictions. This free event will delve into a multitude of pressing topics shaping the industry.

Day one is a must-watch for those interested in AI. Through a series of engaging sessions, we will explore the profound ways in which this revolutionary technology will influence consumers, businesses and society as a whole. We’ll also offer unique perspectives on the anticipated transformations in the tech world in the years ahead.

To kick things off, Ben Wood, CCS Insight’s chief analyst, will present bold predictions about connected mobile devices and the major tech players. He’ll be joined by Parul Saxena, who will share findings from our Pulse survey about how consumer behaviour and sentiment have evolved in response to the meteoric rise of AI over the past two years.

Bola Rotibi will then take the stage, revealing how the enterprise sector has embraced the opportunities presented by increasingly sophisticated AI capabilities, and highlighting our expectations for the potential trajectory of an industry that’s swiftly integrating AI.

Next, we have an exciting interview between Ben Wood and Annika Bizon, Director of Marketing and Omnichannel, and Head of Ireland — MX Division, Samsung UK. Building on our long-standing partnership with Samsung for our Predictions event, Annika, a standout speaker from last year, will provide her perspectives on the convergence of health and AI, and the innovative strides Samsung is making in this space.

Following Annika and Ben, our CEO Geoff Blaber will address the trillion-dollar question: how do we facilitate AI innovation while establishing the necessary safeguards for security and open competition? We’re already witnessing the impact of AI regulation on the industry, as exemplified by the absence of certain AI features from Apple and Meta in Europe owing to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). As we look to the future, the diverse approaches to AI regulation in markets like the US, EU and China have the potential to disrupt an industry that’s determined to advance at full throttle.

Continuing the theme of regulation and a topic particularly close to my heart. The reliance of Europe on imported electronics from international trade-in hubs like the US and Japan colours everything that happens in the market, which the incoming EU Radio Equipment Directive threatens to upend by banning all imports of smartphones that aren’t compatible with the USB-C standard. Head of research, Simon Bryant, will shed light on the European circular economy’s rapidly developing regulatory landscape.

In what promises to be a fascinating interview with someone at the coalface of AI regulation, Qualcomm’s Vice President of Government Affairs, Audrey Scozzaro Ferrazzini, will sit down with Geoff to talk regulation, geopolitics and how Qualcomm views the AI Act and DMA.

CCS Insight’s boots on the ground in the US (and my boss), Leo Gebbie, will close the day with a look at the future of wearable and spatial computing, exploring how the transition to gesture-based user interfaces will make controlling augmented reality (AR) devices a doddle, how consumer-available AR smart glasses will find their way onto our faces, and how AI models will integrate with our devices to make our lives that little bit simpler and more productive.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a brief shout-out to day two of the event, on Wednesday 9 October, when I’ll be joined by my colleagues Kester Mann, Ian Fogg, Luke Pearce, Vaishali Purohit, Maria Bell, Ben Wood, Geoff Blaber, as well as EE CEO, Marc Allera, and TCL Europe Chief Marketing Officer, Stefan Streit, to add our voices to CCS Insight’s chorus of the future.

So please sign up at the link below for what promises to be two days of excellent discussion that we hope will leave you both excited, and more prepared for the future. I promise you won’t regret it.

Register here.