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# The EU's GDPR shaped responsible AI decisions at 60% of organisations in 2025, down from 65% in 2024
- URL: https://aiadoption.org/data/regulations-influencing-responsible-ai/
- Published: 2026-10-19T17:07:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T06:04:41.000Z
- Description: The GDPR remained the rule most often cited as shaping responsible AI decisions in 2025 (60%, down from 65%). The EU AI Act rose to 43% and the new ISO/IEC 42001 entry reached 36%.
- Author: Manu
- Tags: Data, AI Ethics, #chart, #ai-index-2026, #hub-ethics

60%

of organisations said the EU's GDPR influenced their responsible AI decisions in 2025, down from 65% in 2024; the EU AI Act: 43%

Influenced by the GDPR

202559.9%

202465.5%

## What the chart shows

The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation was the rule organisations most often said influenced their responsible AI decisions in both years, though its share fell from 65% in 2024 to 60% in 2025\. The EU AI Act came second, rising from 41% to 43%.

Two standards added to the survey in 2025 came next: ISO/IEC 42001, an AI management system standard, at 36% and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework at 33%. The OECD AI Principles fell from 21% to 16%, and the share reporting no influence fell from 17% to 12%.

## Key numbers

| Measure                  | Value |
| ------------------------ | ----- |
| EU GDPR, 2025            | 59.9% |
| EU GDPR, 2024            | 65.5% |
| EU AI Act, 2025          | 42.7% |
| ISO/IEC 42001, 2025      | 36.1% |
| NIST AI RMF, 2025        | 32.7% |
| OECD AI Principles, 2025 | 16.3% |

## How to read it

- Survey of business leaders by the AI Index and McKinsey & Company in 2024 and 2025, across several regions and industries; it has no respondents from China.
- ISO/IEC 42001 and the NIST AI RMF were added in 2025, so they have no 2024 bar.
- The US executive order on AI was revoked in early 2025, as the AI Index notes; 21% of organisations still cited it in 2025.

**Source:** [McKinsey & Company Survey](https://aiadoption.org/sources/#mckinsey-state-of-ai), 2025, via the AI Index Report 2026 (Stanford HAI), figure 3.3.11: *Percentage of organizations influenced by AI regulations in responsible AI decision-making, 2024 vs. 2025*. Chart and text by AI Adoption.  
Numbers checked against the published data on 20 October 2026.  
[Download the data (CSV)](https://charts.aiadoption.org/ai-index/csv/regulations-influencing-responsible-ai.csv?ref=aiadoption.org) · [Cite this chart](#source)