Investigator: Maria Lucia Passador

Abstract:
This research project investigates how the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) is catalysing a systemic transformation in corporate governance and accountability frameworks. It examines how emerging regulatory standards governing high-risk AI systems compel companies to reconfigure internal responsibilities, redistribute oversight functions, and anticipate liability not only at the board level but throughout the corporate structure. The project positions the AI Act as a turning point: one that elevates algorithmic oversight from a technical consideration to a matter of enforceable compliance.

The first strand of the analysis focuses on the board of directors, exploring how the AI Act’s requirements—such as human oversight, traceability, and documentation—affect strategic decision-making when AI systems are embedded in core business processes. Yet the project moves beyond board-level governance to map how the AI Act reshapes the everyday functions of compliance officers, legal counsel, data governance leads, and product owners, each of whom becomes a point of regulatory contact within the firm. Drawing on insights from recent EU and US literature, the study develops a typology of affected roles and outlines a model of distributed accountability that reflects the increasing entanglement of operational decision-making and legal exposure.

The project also includes dedicated considerations on AI-enabled trademark protection, where detection and enforcement systems—such as multimodal monitoring tools and automated takedown pipelines—are now governed by obligations of fairness, transparency, and auditability. The legal defensibility of such systems becomes as critical as their technical performance, requiring collaboration between brand protection teams, external platforms, and in-house legal functions.

Finally, the research explores the transatlantic dimensions of these developments. While the EU AI Act imposes formalised compliance obligations, the United States is advancing through a hybrid model of agency guidance, litigation exposure, and private standard-setting. This divergence creates tension—but also opportunity—for global firms operating in both jurisdictions. The paper argues that a functional convergence is emerging around the principles of explainability, role-based accountability, and institutional readiness, even if expressed through different regulatory idioms. Corporate actors must therefore develop internal governance architectures that can withstand scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic—anticipating not only European enforcement, but also evolving expectations from the SEC, FTC, and the broader ecosystem of soft law and litigation risk in the US.