Sasha Rubel has spent her career at the point where technology meets governance. As Head of AI Policy for EMEA at Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the cloud computing arm of retail giant Amazon – she advises governments on workable regulatory frameworks, supports organisations in building responsible AI strategies and works directly with the businesses building AI-powered solutions.

It is, Sasha says, a role defined by urgency. 

“Innovation cycles are compressing and AI development is outpacing regulatory frameworks,” she explains. 

Sasha’s mission now is to ensure that responsibility and safety are built into AI systems from the ground up – not bolted on afterwards – while keeping Europe competitive in a complex global landscape.

Moving toward advanced AI use

Sasha leads two flagship initiatives at AWS. The first is the AWS Pioneers Project, which champions European AI innovators advancing competitiveness through purpose-driven innovation. The second is an annual report, Unlocking Europe's AI Potential, which surveys 17,000 businesses and 17,000 citizens across 17 European countries on how they are navigating the AI era.

The findings show Europe has genuine strengths: world-class research institutions, a technology sector worth almost US$4tn and almost 40,000 funded technology companies. AI adoption among European businesses has risen sharply, from 33% two years ago to 54% today – equivalent to 4.4 million businesses adopting AI for the first time over the past year, or roughly one every seven seconds.

However, headline adoption figures only tell part of the story. The more telling metric is the proportion of businesses moving into advanced use – in other words, embedding AI into core processes, building custom solutions and deploying agentic AI systems capable of planning and executing complex workflows without direct human instruction. That figure has risen by just one percentage point over the past year to 22%.

“Companies experimenting with AI report 40% productivity gains, while those at advanced stages see 62% gains,” Sasha says. “That difference represents tangible untapped potential. If we could help basic adopters reach advanced AI use, we'd unlock €191bn (US$220bn) in gross value added for Europe by 2030.”

From experimentation to transformation

Sasha is keen to stress that any nation’s ability to improve its standard of living depends almost entirely on productivity.

The aforementioned gap is best illustrated when examining agentic AI. AWS’s research shows only 24% of European businesses have even heard of the concept and, of those, just 3% have deployed it.

“Every month businesses remain in experimentation is a month of missed productivity and weakened competitiveness against those moving ahead,” Sasha warns. 

Startups, however, are pointing the way forward, with 78% saying they are prepared for next-generation AI tools, including agentic AI, compared with just 19% of businesses overall. 

“They’re proving what happens when you treat AI not as a side project, but as a creative partner at the heart of your business model,” Sasha continues. 

Pioneers in practice

The AWS Pioneers Project was designed to surface and celebrate exactly this kind of thinking. The 12 companies selected for the current cohort span healthcare, climate, safety and humanitarian response – sectors where, as Sasha puts it, impact is measured in lives changed and communities protected.

Among them is Paebbl, a Dutch startup that has developed a process to transform captured carbon dioxide into a carbon-storing alternative to conventional concrete. Another is Hala Systems, which fuses satellite imagery, audio data and social media signals to warn civilians of imminent threats in conflict zones.

Sasha says: “What unites all 12 Pioneers is a shared conviction: that clear vision, combined with secure AI and cloud infrastructure, can transform ideas into measurable global impact.

“They’re building the future Europe needs, proving that technology and social purpose work together, not in opposition.”

For Sasha, these companies represent a preview of what becomes possible when organisations stop treating AI as an experiment and start treating it as a core strategic capability.

Barriers to scale

Realising that potential at scale requires removing the barriers that are currently holding European businesses back. 

Sasha identifies three in particular: regulatory complexity, a widening AI skills gap and chronic underinvestment.

When it comes to regulation, the numbers are striking. Startups seeking to scale across Europe must navigate 27 different national regulatory frameworks, while 41% of businesses cite regulatory fragmentation within the EU as a key barrier to growth.

Meanwhile, 43% lack a dedicated AI budget, limiting their capacity to invest even when the will is there.

“The data is stark,” Sasha emphasises. “Four out of 10 startups will consider relocating outside Europe if these challenges go unresolved – rising to more than half among the highest-growth startups.”

Europe, in other words, risks exporting the very innovators it needs most.

The policy decisions that cannot wait

Against this backdrop, Sasha sets out three policy interventions she believes must happen now. 

The first is making the public sector Europe’s flagship AI adopter, deploying AI across public services and streamlining procurement so that startups, scaleups and SMEs can build and deploy solutions at pace.

The second involves incentivising investment and simplifying access to growth capital: “We need to unlock the potential of the digital single market by harmonising enforcement and simplifying digital regulations to reduce compliance costs, removing overlapping requirements and size-based regulatory thresholds that ultimately discourage firms from scaling AI solutions and receiving investment.”

The third is building AI readiness from the ground up – “embedding AI literacy across education systems, supporting public-private partnerships to upskill workforces and providing dedicated funds to help develop AI strategies”. 

Starting with purpose

For organisations that remain hesitant, Sasha’s advice is direct.

“Act with purpose and work backwards from big challenges that AI offers the opportunity for us to address,” she asserts. “European businesses need to seize the opportunities this technology presents.”

Sasha goes on to insist that slower “doesn't always mean safer” and speed “doesn't always correlate with risk”. 

As AI uptake accelerates, standing still carries its own risks. Falling behind more advanced adopters means forfeiting the productivity gains that increasingly separate competitive businesses from those being left behind.

For Sasha and AWS, the mission is to help European businesses “move responsibly, with pace, security, agility and purpose”.

Through the Pioneers Project and annual report, the aim is to demonstrate that breakthrough technology and measurable social impact go hand in hand.