Summary
On July 23, 2025, the federal government unveiled America's AI Action Plan (the Plan), a sweeping policy roadmap aimed at clearing away regulatory barriers, supercharging U.S. investment in infrastructure and talent surrounding artificial intelligence (AI), and asserting U.S. leadership in global AI markets. The Plan creates both opportunities and challenges for business. Businesses can expect new incentives, shifting compliance requirements, and heightened competition in the race to develop and deploy advanced AI.
The Upshot
- Deregulation and Investment: The Plan directs agencies to aggressively roll back existing AI-related regulations, and encourages states to do the same, by making funding contingent on deregulation.
- Global Strategy: The U.S. will boost AI exports to allied countries and tighten restrictions on AI technology and parts going to competitors, which could affect how companies manage international operations and compliance.
- Workforce: The Plan creates new incentives for AI-focused education, training, and apprenticeships, expanding opportunities for companies to recruit and develop AI-skilled employees, especially in states aligned with federal policy.
- Ongoing Change: With significant shifts underway at the federal and state levels—and new international dynamics—companies, especially those operating across multiple states or countries, will need to closely monitor evolving policies and adapt quickly as the landscape continues to develop.
The Bottom Line
Businesses should be prepared for new federal programs and incentives focused on AI infrastructure and workforce development, with funding likely to flow most heavily to states with the fewest restrictions on AI. Companies may need to revisit site selection, hiring, and expansion strategies to benefit from these incentives. Internationally, organizations should anticipate changes in market access and supply chains as the U.S. prioritizes cooperation with allied countries and tightens controls on exports to competitors. Staying alert to these policy shifts will be essential for effective planning and risk management in the evolving AI landscape.
On July 23, 2025, the Trump Administration unveiled America's AI Action Plan, launching the most sweeping federal AI policy initiative to date. Promising to "reassert American leadership in artificial intelligence," the Plan marks a decisive pivot from previous federal efforts, moving aggressively to cut red tape, open access to AI technology, and ignite a new wave of public and private investment. Its goal: to place the United States at the forefront of global AI innovation and competitiveness, with major implications for how companies build, deploy, and compete with AI across every sector of the economy.
The Plan directs federal agencies to review and eliminate regulations that could impede AI development. It also requires agencies to consider each state's regulatory approach when allocating federal funding for AI initiatives, favoring those states that refrain from imposing new regulatory requirements. For businesses, this policy may expand access to grants, infrastructure investment, and workforce development resources in certain states. Conversely, companies with operations in states that maintain or adopt stricter AI regulations may encounter reduced eligibility for federal support. As a result, companies deciding where to locate or grow AI-related operations should carefully monitor state-level policy choices, presenting both new opportunities and additional strategic considerations.
The Plan expresses a strong policy preference for open-source AI—AI models whose underlying code and data are made publicly available for anyone to use, adapt, or build upon—encouraging federal agencies to prioritize the use and development of such models. For businesses, open-source models can reduce costs, speed up development, and allow greater flexibility in customizing AI solutions. For example, a company might deploy a publicly available large language model or image generator and then modify the code or retrain the model on its own data to better serve its business needs. However, adopting open-source AI also raises practical concerns: companies must carefully review the license terms for each model, as some open-source licenses restrict commercial use, require sharing modifications, or impose other conditions that could affect business plans. Companies should also verify where the code originated to avoid inadvertent use of restricted or proprietary material, and ensure that changes made by outside contributors do not introduce errors or security vulnerabilities. These factors make it important for organizations to have clear processes for evaluating and managing open-source AI before integrating it into their operations.
The Plan devotes significant attention to strengthening U.S. infrastructure for AI development and deployment. Federal priorities include supporting the construction of new data centers, accelerating domestic semiconductor manufacturing, and modernizing the national power grid to meet the rising energy demands of advanced AI systems. The Plan also calls for streamlining environmental and permitting processes, making it easier and faster for companies to build and expand critical facilities. For businesses, these infrastructure initiatives present opportunities to secure faster project approvals, benefit from new federal resources for technology expansion, and gain improved access to domestic supply chains for high-performance computing hardware. However, the focus on U.S.-made chips and restrictions on foreign technology may increase the cost or complexity of procurement for firms with global supply chains, creating new challenges for companies that depend on international vendors or parts.
The Plan also highlights the need to develop a larger pool of AI-skilled workers across all sectors of the economy. Federal agencies are directed to invest in AI-focused education and training, expand apprenticeships, and support programs to help workers move into AI-related jobs. For businesses, this creates an opportunity to collaborate with colleges, universities, and training providers to access a pipeline of new graduates with AI expertise. At the same time, companies may be able to take advantage of government-funded programs that subsidize employee training or retraining in AI skills. However, as the demand for AI talent increases nationwide, businesses should expect greater competition for qualified employees and may need to increase their investment in recruitment, retention, and professional development to secure and keep the workers they need.
Internationally, the Plan makes it a priority for the United States to become the leading exporter of AI technology, with the explicit goal of shaping the standards and practices adopted by allies and trading partners. The Plan warns that if the U.S. does not act aggressively to export American-developed AI systems, other countries may fill that gap, potentially undermining U.S. influence over the global AI landscape. As a result, federal agencies are tasked with expanding support for American companies to bring their AI products and frameworks to allied markets, while also tightening export controls. Although the Plan's export controls are centered on semiconductors, it also explicitly calls out "semiconductor manufacturing sub-systems"—meaning not just the finished chips themselves, but also the specialized machines, parts, and software needed to make advanced chips in the first place. By restricting exports of these tools and components, the policy aims to control who can produce leading-edge chips worldwide. While these measures directly impact chip manufacturers, they also have downstream effects on industries that rely on a stable supply of advanced chips, including data centers, cloud computing, telecommunications, automotive, and aerospace. For companies in these sectors, tighter controls could mean higher costs, hardware shortages, or new compliance obligations as access to critical computing technology becomes more restricted in certain markets. Companies operating globally will need to carefully monitor these shifts to take advantage of new market openings while managing the complexities of an evolving international regulatory environment.
The Plan highlights "synthetic media"—AI-generated images, audio, and video that can be used to mislead, impersonate, or defraud—as a key area of concern. For example, an AI-generated video might convincingly mimic a CEO's voice and likeness to deliver false company news or financial guidance, potentially moving markets or damaging reputation before the fraud is discovered. The Plan directs federal agencies to develop new standards to address these risks, but what those standards will require remains to be seen. Companies in sectors where trust, information integrity, and brand reputation are essential, such as media, finance, law, and technology, are likely to be most affected by future regulatory changes, though organizations in retail, health care, energy, and other industries could also be impacted if their business is vulnerable to misinformation or impersonation. In practical terms, as new standards emerge, companies should be prepared to strengthen their ability to detect, verify, and respond to AI-generated content that could cause harm or confusion.
The Plan marks the beginning of a new policy direction for businesses navigating the fast-changing landscape of AI. It sets out federal priorities for rolling back regulation, investing in infrastructure and workforce development, promoting open-source technology, and strengthening U.S. influence in global AI standards. For companies working in this space, the Plan points to both new opportunities and emerging complexities, requiring close attention to shifting state and federal requirements, changes in export controls, and potential new standards on issues like synthetic media and open-source adoption. As agencies move forward in turning this roadmap into specific policies and incentives, organizations that stay informed and ready to adapt will be best equipped to compete and manage risk in the evolving world of AI.
Ballard Spahr is monitoring these developments—as well as legislative and regulatory activity across the states—on an ongoing basis. Our AI Legislation Tracker provides a comprehensive view of AI-related legislative activities with significant potential impact on businesses.
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