Transformative artificial intelligence (AI) presents safety and societal risks and has prospective benefits. Although governments retain an indispensable role in governing AI, business and civil society actors play material roles in how AI is designed, deployed, and experienced. The authors of this report develop a structured framework for how industry and civil society can help manage and mitigate those risks.

Looking Beyond the Government’s Regulatory Toolkit

Early Findings on How Business and Civil Society Actors Can Help Manage and Mitigate Transformative Artificial Intelligence Risks and Impacts

Beba Cibralic, Joel B. Predd, Richard S. Girven

ResearchPublished Jun 24, 2026

Transformative artificial intelligence (AI) presents safety and societal risks that governments alone are unlikely to manage in time. Frontier research and deployment of AI are concentrated in private firms, technical progress is outpacing policy and regulation cycles, and the surfaces of impact lie largely outside direct state control. The authors of this report examine how business and civil society actors can help mitigate these risks in ways that, in some cases, compensate for gaps in government action.

Drawing on a targeted literature review, semistructured interviews with practitioners across business and civil society, and observations from five RAND-designed tabletop exercises, the authors develop a framework organized around three roles for nongovernmental actors: managing technical and operational risks within development and deployment, shaping incentives for safety through market and network mechanisms, and supporting social stability and public trust during periods of AI-related change. Under each role, they specify actions that are feasible under existing legal and market conditions, distinguish minimum baselines from coordinated next steps, and identify where nongovernmental efforts can inform or reinforce public policy. The framework is intended for business and civil society audiences seeking a practical entry point into transformative AI risk management and for researchers investigating governance roles beyond the state.

Key Takeaways

Business and civil society can play critical roles in transformative AI risk management and governance

  • A clear finding from the literature, interviews, and games is that business and civil society actors are well suited to contribute to managing and mitigating transformative AI risks because of their positions in the AI development and deployment life cycles, as well as in society. The report identifies three roles where action is both useful and feasible under existing conditions.

The AI community should manage technical and operational risks within development and deployment

  • Companies developing and deploying AI are closest to where risks originate. Frontier developers, cloud and infrastructure providers, and high-risk deployers could maintain distinct AI risk functions and formal escalation routes and document safety cases. Smaller deployers and downstream adopters could begin with a thinner baseline, including named executive ownership, an inventory of AI uses, use-case risk triage, and human-override procedures for consequential applications.

Incentives for safety must be shaped through market and network mechanisms

  • Major purchasers, investors, insurers, and industry consortia could incorporate safety criteria into procurement, due diligence, and assurance processes, rewarding developers that adopt robust risk-management practices and helping to diffuse common standards across markets and sectors.

Social stability and public trust must be supported during periods of AI-related change

  • Employers, philanthropies, unions, professional bodies, and community organizations could plan for workforce transitions, invest in reskilling and redeployment, strengthen local resilience to AI-related shocks, and provide credible communication about AI risks and benefits.

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Cibralic, Beba, Joel B. Predd, and Richard S. Girven, Looking Beyond the Government’s Regulatory Toolkit: Early Findings on How Business and Civil Society Actors Can Help Manage and Mitigate Transformative Artificial Intelligence Risks and Impacts. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2026. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA4522-1.html.
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This research was independently initiated and conducted by the Center for the Geopolitics of Artificial General Intelligence with RAND Global and Emerging Risks using income from operations and gifts from RAND supporters, including philanthropic gifts.

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