In July 2025, the White House unveiled its new strategy called “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan” —a bold new era in U.S. AI policy that aims to accelerate innovation, empower AI infrastructure growth, and lead in global AI diplomacy and security. The plan, which includes over 90 executive actions, directs federal agencies to streamline AI regulation, fast-track data center and semiconductor deployments, and enforce “ideological neutrality” for government AI systems while expanding provisions for bias mitigation and export controls. But these ambitions require more than legislation; they require operational rigor, transparency, and scalable compliance precisely where technologies like BigID become indispensable.
For security professionals, this is more than just a policy; it’s a transformative blueprint poised to redefine cybersecurity standards, compliance expectations, and threat models across all sectors.
It signals a decisive stance from the U.S. government: AI security is national security, and addressing AI risk is both real and urgent.
The 3 Pillars of the AI Action Plan
The White House AI Action Plan is built on three core pillars: accelerating innovation, strengthening U.S. AI infrastructure, and asserting global leadership in diplomacy and security. It outlines expansive policy actions across permitting, export controls, federal procurement, and workforce readiness. Prioritizing a pro-innovation stance, the plan urges federal agencies to reduce regulatory friction, steer clear of ideologically biased AI, and factor in state-level AI laws when allocating federal funds. At its core, the plan signals a shift toward centralized federal AI oversight and a move to curb fragmented regulation at the state level.
Pillar #1: Accelerate AI Innovation
“America must have the most powerful AI systems in the world, but we must also lead the world in creative and transformative application of those systems. Ultimately, it is the uses of technology that create economic growth, new jobs, and scientific advancements. America must invent and embrace productivity enhancing AI uses that the world wants to emulate. Achieving this requires the Federal government to create the conditions where private sector-led innovation can flourish.”
Pillar #2: Build American AI Infrastructure
“AI is the first digital service in modern life that challenges America to build vastly greater energy generation than we have today. American energy capacity has stagnated since the 1970s while China has rapidly built out their grid. America’s path to AI dominance depends on changing this troubling trend. That requires streamlining permitting, strengthening and growing the electric grid, and creating the workforce to build it all.”
Pillar #3: Lead International AI Diplomacy and Security
“To succeed in the global AI competition, America must do more than promote AI within its own borders. The United States must also drive adoption of American AI systems, computing hardware, and standards throughout the world. America currently is the global leader on data center construction, computing hardware performance, and models. It is imperative that the United States leverage this advantage into an enduring global alliance, while preventing our adversaries from free-riding on our innovation and investment.”
Why the AI Action Plan Matters
The White House AI Action Plan marks a pivotal moment in shaping the future of artificial intelligence in the United States. It goes beyond guidance—it sets a national standard for responsible AI development, use, and oversight, with a strong emphasis on safety, privacy, security, equity, and accountability. As AI rapidly integrates into critical infrastructure, healthcare, defense, and everyday services, the plan underscores the need to mitigate risks while fostering innovation. It also signals a united government push to protect citizens from the unintended consequences of AI and aligns federal efforts with global regulatory momentum. For organizations and technology providers, this plan is both a challenge and an opportunity to lead with transparency and trust.
The White House AI Action Plan makes clear that privacy and national security cannot be an afterthought. Organizations that adopt BigID will gain automated data intelligence, risk mapping, and policy enforcement capabilities needed to inventory AI systems, conduct structured AI assessments aligned with frameworks like NIST AI RMF and ISO 42001, and support federated governance across legal, privacy, security, and engineering teams, effectively transforming strategic intent into operational reality.
Ways the Action Plan Legitimizes AI Security
Federal Recognition of AI Risk
The Action Plan acknowledges AI as a national security concern, putting enterprise AI risk squarely on the government’s radar. This validates that organizations must prioritize AI security as a core function—just like data protection or network security—underscoring the growing urgency to proactively assess and mitigate AI-related threats.
Mandate for Secure AI Development
With directives to promote “safe, secure, and trustworthy AI,” the Plan reinforces the need for enterprises to embed security into every stage of AI development and deployment. This includes model validation, data lineage tracking, and documentation of risk mitigation practices already embraced by leading AI governance platforms.
AI Incident Response and Threat Intelligence
A key highlight for security teams, the plan introduces formal AI incident response capabilities through the creation of an AI Information Sharing and Analysis Center (AI-ISAC). Led by DHS in coordination with CAISI at the Department of Commerce and the Office of the National Cyber Director, the AI-ISAC will centralize and promote the exchange of AI-related threat intelligence across U.S. critical infrastructure sectors.
Emphasis on Third-Party Oversight
By calling for more transparency and accountability in AI supply chains and vendor ecosystems, the Plan elevates third-party risk management as a key security imperative. Enterprises must now evaluate not only their models but also those used or embedded by vendors, cloud providers, and LLM platforms.
Support for AI Risk Frameworks
The Action Plan promotes the use of standardized frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, validating best practices that guide enterprise adoption of trustworthy AI. This reinforces the need for tools that align with these frameworks to help security, privacy, and governance teams operationalize AI risk policies at scale.
Data Protection at the Core
Data integrity, access control, and sensitive data handling are emphasized throughout the Plan, especially in relation to model training and deployment. This affirms that AI security begins with understanding and securing the data—placing technologies like BigID at the center of enterprise AI governance strategies.
How BigID Supports the AI Action Plan
In an era where governments expect more and faster AI policy compliance, BigID bridges the gap between political ambition and enterprise execution. The AI Action Plan emphasizes rapid innovation—but policymakers also expect accountability and safe deployment. BigID helps organizations:
Align with AI Risk Management Frameworks
Align with formal frameworks like NIST AI RMF and ISO/IEC 42001, enabling structured risk assessments, bias detection, and policy alignment, all required for assessing AI neutrality and trustworthiness.
Discover & Inventory AI Assets
Gain comprehensive visibility across datasets, shadow AI usage, vector stores, and LLM interactions, which is crucial for documenting sensitive AI workflows and meeting export controls.
Automate AI Impact Assessments
Automate AI risk assessment, flagging risk vectors such as bias, over-exposure, or unauthorized export before deployment.
Assess Third-Party Risk
Identify, assess, and continuously monitor third-party vendors and AI systems for privacy, security, and compliance risks across the data supply chain.
Incident Response
Detect sensitive data exposure, automate breach impact assessments, and streamline notification workflows to ensure timely, compliant responses to AI-related security incidents.
Monitor & Report on Compliance
Track policy enforcement, consent management, DSARs, and data minimization efforts—offering real-time evidence tied to federal mandates on AI neutrality, data use limitation, and export protocols.
Cross-Functional Governance & Accountability
Streamline workflows across legal, privacy, product, and security teams, aligning with the Action Plan’s emphasis on federal contract compliance and cross-stakeholder oversight.
Schedule a demo to learn how BigID can help align with the White House AI Action Plan.
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