GSF Insights Session – Business engagement in AI Sandboxes

As part of the Datasphere Initiative’s work to share knowledge and capacity on how sandboxes can be used for responsible innovation, this GSF insights session will investigate business engagement in AI sandboxes and seek to identify how sandboxes are being used by companies of different sizes and sectors to test or develop AI. 

This GSF Insights Session has the following objectives:

• Present emerging findings from the Datasphere Initiative upcoming report on Business and AI sandboxes 
• Collect lessons from regulators and businesses who have experience with AI sandboxes 
• Identify the different roles a business can have in an AI sandbox
• Analyze the potential opportunities and challenges regulators can face when attracting companies to AI sandboxes

Background 

Participating in an AI sandbox can bring tangible and intangible benefits to companies, regulators, and broader innovation ecosystems. For businesses, it can provide an opportunity not only to test technologies  and access data in a safe and supervised space but also to engage in structured learning and co-creation processes with regulators and peers. At the same time, many businesses may also be hesitant or unwilling to join such initiatives. Governments setting up “regulatory sandboxes” often report challenges in identifying or receiving sandbox applications from businesses who fit the criteria of the sandbox. In addition, some sandbox hosts may find it challenging to contact or communicate the sandbox opportunity to relevant companies. 

As AI sandboxes develop into not only regulatory dialogues but practical testing and data-sharing infrastructures (operational or hybrid models), it is also important to understand some of the factors that may hamper or encourage the “business case” for AI sandboxes, not only for participation, but for investment, co-design, and leadership in sandbox initiatives.

Beyond participating as applicants in regulator-led sandboxes, businesses are increasingly playing a role as co-designers, conveners, infrastructure providers, or even hosts of AI sandboxes. In hybrid and operational models, private actors may shape the technical architecture, governance processes, and access mechanisms that enable testing and data-sharing. Understanding this expanded role of business is critical as sandboxes evolve beyond purely regulatory experimentation.

This is an invite-only event. If you believe this space is for you, reach out at [email protected]