Carme Artigas
Most executives have mapped their AI technology landscape; far fewer have mapped the governance architecture being built around it. The EU AI Act now sets binding constraints on which AI applications can be deployed, which require conformity assessments, and which are prohibited entirely. Parallel frameworks at UN level will extend these obligations globally.
The EU AI Act has turned AI governance from regulatory speculation into binding law – Carme Artigas, who led the EU Council negotiations as chief negotiator and co-chaired the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI, helps organisations understand what that shift means for their strategy.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Carme Artigas
- Access to the EU AI Act from the inside: as the Council Presidency’s chief negotiator when the Act was concluded in December 2023, she knows which provisions were contested, how they were resolved, and where enforcement questions remain open – clarity that no commentator or academic can replicate.
- A UN-level governance map built from the source: as Co-Chair of the UN High-Level Advisory Body on AI, she coordinated 39 experts across 33 countries to produce Governing AI for Humanity – the blueprint for global AI oversight that national strategies and multilateral institutions are now implementing. She co-chaired the body alongside Google Senior Vice President James Manyika.
- A regulatory perspective grounded in commercial reality: she co-founded Synergic Partners and built it to 150 data scientists before Telefónica acquired it in 2015. Her understanding of AI governance is not abstract – it is shaped by how data and AI deployments actually function inside commercial organisations.
- The only person to have designed a national AI governance system from the ground up: as Spain’s inaugural Secretary of State for Digitalisation and AI, she built the National AI Strategy, data economy strategy, digital rights charter, and the first AI supervision agency on the European continent – giving her unusually concrete insight into what governance implementation demands of organisations.
- An active research presence at the frontier: as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, she continues to work on current AI governance and technology policy questions alongside leading security and policy scholars – not recounting past decisions.
Biography highlights
- Spain’s first Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence (2020–2023); simultaneously president of the National Cybersecurity Institute and the Spanish Agency for the Supervision of AI
- Chief Council negotiator for the EU AI Act, concluded under Spain’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union in December 2023 – the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence
- Co-Chair, UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence (2023–2024); co-produced Governing AI for Humanity with James Manyika (Google Senior Vice President) and 37 other experts from 33 countries
- Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School; first Spanish woman to hold the position
- Co-founder and CEO, Synergic Partners – built to 150 data scientists, acquired by Telefónica in 2015; previously CEO of Ericsson Innova (Ericsson Group’s European venture capital fund)
- Women in Tech Global Awards 2025, Lifetime Achievement; Stanford University Ambassador for Women in Data Science; member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
Biography
The EU AI Act is the world’s first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence. Its provisions determine which AI applications organisations can legally deploy, which require conformity assessments, and which are prohibited. Most executives know the regulation exists. Few understand its architecture.
Carme Artigas did not comment on these negotiations – she led them. As Spain’s first Secretary of State for Digitalisation and AI, she was the Council Presidency’s chief negotiator when the EU AI Act was concluded in December 2023. She had already built the foundations from scratch: Spain’s National AI Strategy, digital rights charter, data economy strategy, and the first AI supervision agency on the European continent.
In parallel, she co-chaired the United Nations High-Level Advisory Body on AI – a 39-member group spanning 33 countries, convened by Secretary-General Guterres in October 2023. The body’s final report, Governing AI for Humanity, published in September 2024, proposed the first architecture for inclusive global AI oversight. She co-chaired it alongside Google Senior Vice President James Manyika.
Before government, she co-founded Synergic Partners – a big data consultancy she built to 150 data scientists before Telefónica acquired it in 2015, remaining as CEO through full integration into the Group. As a Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center since 2023, she continues to engage with governance questions at the intersection of technology, security, and public policy.
Key speaking topics
- EU AI Act implementation and strategic compliance
- Global AI governance frameworks
- AI governance and responsible AI deployment
- Data strategy and big data
- Digital transformation and national digital policy
- International technology cooperation and geopolitics of AI
- Women in technology and digital leadership
Ideal for
- Boards and C-suites with active AI strategies navigating EU AI Act obligations and global regulatory exposure
- Chief Legal, Risk, and Compliance Officers mapping their organisation’s AI regulatory position
- Chief Digital and Technology Officers operating in or supplying to European markets
- Government and public sector leaders developing or stress-testing national AI governance frameworks
Audience outcomes
- A clear understanding of what the EU AI Act actually requires – which AI applications are prohibited, which are designated high-risk, and what conformity assessment obligations apply
- Insight into how the global governance architecture is developing at UN level and how it intersects with European regulation
- A framework for elevating AI governance from a compliance function to a board-level strategic priority
- Understanding of where the regulatory fault lines remain open and where future enforcement is likely to concentrate
- Practical language and reference points to brief boards, regulators, and partners on AI governance obligations
Talks
Artigas takes audiences inside the negotiations that produced the EU AI Act and the UN’s global governance blueprint – explaining what was agreed, what remains contested, and what the enforcement timeline means for organisations with AI deployments underway.
Key takeaways:
- Which AI applications the EU AI Act prohibits, designates high-risk, and requires documentation for
- How enforcement will unfold and which sectors face earliest and greatest regulatory exposure
- Where fault lines in the global governance architecture remain open and how they are likely to resolve
An evidence-based map of where AI is creating genuine strategic value and where governance gaps are generating liability – drawing on firsthand experience of how regulators, legislators, and technology companies view the same landscape from fundamentally different positions.
Key takeaways:
- How to distinguish AI applications that create durable competitive advantage from those that carry disproportionate regulatory and reputational risk
- Which ethical and governance constraints are already material to deployment decisions and which are still speculative
- A practical framework for assessing AI risk in a way that supports, rather than stalls, investment
How data strategy drives competitive advantage in practice – illustrated with cases from building and scaling a data consultancy with 150 specialists and from designing the data economy strategy of a major EU member state.
Key takeaways:
- How a genuinely data-driven culture is built – not as a technology project but as an organisational decision
- Where data strategy creates durable strategic advantage and where its value is typically overstated
- The relationship between data governance, regulatory compliance, and long-term strategic value
A framework for leading when the pace of digital disruption consistently outstrips the capacity to adapt – examining what it means for both organisations and individuals when technological change removes the option of a measured response.
Key takeaways:
- Why accelerating digital disruption requires leaders to reset strategic assumptions more frequently and on shorter cycles
- How to identify which elements of an organisation’s model are genuinely defensible as technology shifts
- What distinguishes organisations that successfully adapt from those that reorganise without fundamentally changing