The Future of Regulation, 2019–2030

The need for innovation is driving growth in disruptive business models. Traditional industries such as transportation, housing, delivery, finance, and banking have been challenged by new entrants with disruptive business structures which are challenging the old regulatory rules that previously governed the markets. Emerging technologies such as AI, Big Data, machine learning, IoT and blockchain are disrupting the way we live and conduct business. On one end we see the immense potential of a world with zero latencies and highest efficiencies but on the other end arises the challenges faced on the regulatory front. The key question to ask is how to best regulate and protect citizens from the unknowns of emerging technologies while allowing innovation and growth. This whitepaper aims to help companies identify opportunities and jump innovation roadblocks caused by regulatory hurdles in order to achieve competitive advantage. The current regulatory approaches are designed to only address the classic economic models without contemplating future changes in technology and business models. The key reason behind current regulatory approaches being so obsolete is because we are not devoting enough funding, time, and resources to update the process of creating new regulations as we have for developing new technologies. Government agencies and private regulators can identify key areas of influences that will shape the future regulatory ecosystem and help them keep pace with technological changes and emerging new business models. It is important to identify what has changed since regulations were first enacted, considering the rapid change in emerging technologies and new business models. Future regulations will evolve from a one-model-fits-all approach to a more malleable form. Frost & Sullivan has identified 4 types of regulatory approaches that will help future regulators understand and rethink regulation in an era of rapid technological change:

1. Receptive Regulations: Receptive regulations are amenable, they are not static. 2. Regulatory Sandboxes: In the digital world, where new technologies and innovative new business models are emerging every day, regulatory sandboxes refers to testing grounds for new technologies and business models that are not being regulated by any current laws. These testing grounds are usually regulatory institutes that supervise these technologies. 3. Pragmatic regulation: This regulatory approach mimics “soft laws” without formal rulemaking but also operates like a functionality-based regulation which works towards a standard public cause 4. Fifth-generation regulation: The new generation of regulations will be driven by innovation, efficiency, and collaboration, with collaboration being the keyword. There is a need for inclusion within all sectors to work together to build guidelines and principles and share best practices.