Exploring 2022 Tech Law Trends: Cloud, AI, and Regulatory Changes (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Kemp IT Law Vlog. I'm Richard Kemp, and in this vlog we'll be taking a high-level view of what 2022 has in store for tech law. Over the last 12 years, we've taken a look each year at what current tech trends mean for tech lawyers in the year ahead. In the 2010s, we've seen the impact of technology broaden and deepen with the rise of the cloud, social media, AI, and sector-specific tech. For lawyers, this has meant the development of intellectual property to protect new technology, the rise of data law as an area of law in its own right, new contracting patterns, and an intensifying drumbeat of regulation, especially data protection. As we look ahead to 2022, a word that recurs in the tech space is intensity. Tech's impact continues to intensify in all aspects of our lives – health, education, family, and how we live and work and spend our leisure time. In business, the tidal pull of the cloud also continues to intensify. Tech intensity here is a feedback loop where, driven by competitive pressures, cloud providers build out their own tools and platforms that fuel, and in turn are fueled by, their customers' digital transformation and cloud adoption. At the same time, calls in society for greater tech accountability are also intensifying. This looks likely to be particularly acute in the UK in 2022, where there are three main areas of regulatory focus. First, the passage through Parliament of the Online Safety Bill, the UK's response to recalibrating big tech's responsibilities. Second, the government's plans for a new competition law regime for digital markets, and a bigger role for the CMA's Digital Markets Unit. Third, the direction of travel for UK data protection law after the government's reform consultation in 2021. What makes this particularly intense for the UK is that all this is happening at a time when, sandwiched between the bigger neighbours, the US and the EU, the UK is finding its own place in the digital world. If you'd like to find out more about tech law trends in 2022, check out our blog and vlog at kempitlaw.com.