America’s 2025 AI Action Plan
On 23 July, the White House released “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan 2025,” laying out the Trump Administration AI strategy and whole-of-government approach to promoting American leadership in AI research, development, and adoption. The AI Action Plan functionally serves as a replacement of President Biden’s Executive Order (EO) 14110 on the “Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” which was rescinded by President Trump shortly after he took office.
While the AI Action Plan shifts focus away from the Biden Administration’s emphasis on risk-based governance and AI safety, it retains EO 14110’s ambitious scope along with similar provisions in areas such as national security, standards development, testing and evaluation, and workforce development.
The AI Action Plan is divided into three main pillars: Accelerating Innovation, Building American AI Infrastructure, and Leading in International Diplomacy and Security.
Pillar I: Accelerate AI Innovation
This pillar covers a wide variety of AI policy initiatives aimed at driving AI uptake at all levels of American society. At the federal level, the Action Plan calls for agencies to identify, review, and take action on regulations that may hinder AI innovation. It also seeks to streamline the government’s adoption of AI tools by directing agencies to reform procurement procedures, share AI capabilities among other agencies, and launch new initiatives including an AI procurement toolbox. To facilitate greater AI usage by the private sector and research institutions, the Action Plan includes directives for agencies to develop quality, AI-ready datasets and to enhance access to curated federal datasets by the public. Notably, Pillars I and II contain sweeping proposals to study the impact of AI on the US workforce and AI skills development programmes meant to pre-emptively address potential disruptions.
Pillar II: Build American AI Infrastructure
It focuses on operationalising previous EOs and legislation like the CHIPS Act to ensure the US is able to meet the growing energy and compute demands of AI technologies. In addition to calling for permitting reforms to accelerate the expansion of data centres and energy infrastructure in the US, the Action Plan contains several measures dedicated to growing America’s domestic semiconductor industry. Pillar II also lays out directives for securing the critical infrastructure, including the establishment of an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center (AI-ISAC) to promote the sharing of AI-security threat information across critical infrastructure sectors.
Pillar III: Lead in International AI Diplomacy and Security
The final pillar primarily focuses on securing and maintaining American AI leadership internationally, as well as expanding and strengthening its export control regime to countries of concern. A key aspect of the Action Plan’s international strategy is the provision of “full-stack AI export packages,” including hardware, models, software, applications, and standards, to ensure that US technologies dominate the diffusion of AI technologies around the world. Pillar III also envisions not only expanding trade restrictions on AI and semiconductor technologies, but also enhancing coordination with US partners and allies to ensure its export control regime is not circumvented.
Next steps for US AI policy
Federal agencies are expected to release implementation guidance and begin executing the plan’s directives in the coming weeks and months. Above all, the Trump Administration’s AI Action Plan marks a significant shift in US AI policy and sets the stage for debates over regulation, governance, and global competitiveness.
At Access Partnership, we are experts in AI and policy. We are closely monitoring developments in Washington and worldwide, providing our clients with clear, actionable insight. Whether you need a fast impact assessment of the AI Action Plan or help shaping an advocacy strategy with US agencies, we deliver the analysis and engagement support that keeps your AI goals on course. Contact us to learn how we can assist.
