Innovation Meets Oversight: AI Sandboxes and Smarter Regulation

As AI systems become increasingly central to business operations and public services, regulators and companies are grappling with how to enable innovation while maintaining strong oversight and accountability. Regulatory sandboxes have emerged as a promising tool to bridge this gap. This panel will explore how AI sandboxes can support responsible innovation, reduce uncertainty and build regulatory capacity. Drawing on key findings from CIPL’s research on AI sandboxes, panelists will examine how these regulatory tools can help companies implement trustworthy AI, engage proactively with regulators and develop robust compliance strategies. The discussion will explore what effective regulatory oversight looks like in the context of sandbox models, including the role of enforcement, performance-based compliance metrics and cross-sector collaboration. 

What you will learn:

• How AI sandboxes can promote regulatory clarity, especially in high-risk or frontier use cases. 

• How regulators are using sandbox models to develop enforcement capacity and shape future compliance expectations. 

• Practical lessons from AI sandbox initiatives in the U.K., EU and beyond. 

• How AI sandboxes fit within broader national and international AI regulatory strategies, including the U.K.’s pro-innovation approach and the EU AI Act.