Fragmented AI policy threatens US leadership as government scrambles to keep pace

AI policy fragmentation is emerging as a critical risk for Washington, and without a federal standard, a patchwork of conflicting state-level rules threatens to undermine American competitiveness.

That gap is precisely what Appian Corp. is moving to address at the highest levels of government. The process automation company serves federal, state and local agencies — from the Department of Defense to state capitals — and is now formally bringing its expertise to the policy table, according to Joe Vidulich (pictured), head of government relations at Appian.

“When it comes to AI policy, there’s this unspoken thing going on in the room — [policy-makers] really don’t know a lot about how to implement it,” Vidulich said. “That’s common across Republicans or Democrats or independents, no matter who it is. They talk to their young staffers [and ask]: ‘What does AI mean? What does agentic AI mean?'”

Vidulich spoke with Dave Vellante and Alison Kosik at Appian World 2026, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed AI policy fragmentation, the challenge of establishing a federal regulatory standard and Appian’s role as a broker between the technology industry and government. (* Disclosure below.)

AI policy fragmentation and the case for a federal standard

Vidulich brings more than a decade of bipartisan advocacy experience — including a decade-plus at Capital One Financial Corp. under a founder-led chief executive — to a role that is itself newly created, reflecting the urgency Appian places on shaping the AI governance conversation. The core problem is not ideological disagreement but structural incoherence, with 50 states moving independently on AI legislation, Vidulich explained.

“We basically have 50 cooks and no recipe,” Vidulich said. “We have 50 musicians waiting at the bow of the stage ready to perform, but no conductor. There are no rules of the road here. What we risk as a technology company — frankly, as a civilization — is that we’re going to have so many rules out there and they’re not going to be talking to one another.”

The fragmentation problem is compounded by the pace of agency adoption, Vidulich noted. Chief information and technology officers are moving at “light speed,” deploying AI against thousands of legacy systems, with the White House’s call for streamlined AI procurement not yet translating into the kind of comprehensive standard that would give agencies and companies alike a clear framework to build on.

“If you’re falling behind in this race, you’re really at your own peril,” Vidulich said. “We need to look at what the landscape is and what should be the guardrails, because if we do not have a regulatory system in place, people are going to take advantage of it. We need something that is comprehensive — that puts America first — as well as advances where we need to be as a society.”

Appian’s advocacy positioning is explicitly non-self-serving, according to Vidulich. That means telling policymakers plainly that serious AI deployments require human oversight and guardrails, not unchecked autonomy, and that Appian’s process-centric platform is built on the premise that AI earns trust only when it operates within governed, deterministic structures.

“We believe that serious AI needs guardrails. There needs to be a human that checks it, that works on it,” Vidulich said. “We need to learn from past mistakes and we need to set up these guardrails now so we can execute effectively and put America on a forward path.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Appian World 2026:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Appian World. Neither Appian, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE