The Hague, March 12, 2026 – As governments accelerate digital transformation, the challenge of implementing complex regulations in digital systems is becoming increasingly urgent. Deloitte, TNO, the University of Amsterdam, and Be Informed hosted the Norm Engineering Conference 2026 in The Hague to advance the conversation on norm engineering from ambition to action.
“For years, many of these ideas have lived primarily in research and conceptual frameworks,” said Matthew Gracie, Managing Director of the Risk, Regulatory & Forensics team at Deloitte US. “What is changing now is that advances in AI, including LLMs and Agentic AI models, are bringing those concepts into real projects. Combined with standards such as FLINT, these technologies allow regulatory data to be structured, modeled, and applied in practical solutions, turning norm engineering from theory into operational capability.”
The conference brought together government leaders, academics, and practitioners to examine how norm engineering is being applied in practice. Across discussions and use cases, it became clear that the shift from theory to real-world application is now really underway.
At the core of this shift is the ability to translate legislation into structured, machine-readable representations that can accurately and safely guide automated processes. While the concept itself is not new, the conditions are now in place to apply it at scale, enabling more consistent, explainable, and adaptable implementation of regulation.
Norm Engineering powers digital public services
Automated processes are becoming the backbone of how governments and organizations operate. Yet regulation is still written as dense legal text that requires human interpretation, judgement, and context. This approach has long worked in practice, but it becomes increasingly difficult to sustain as decisions need to be applied consistently across systems.
As processes become more digital and interconnected, this creates a growing challenge. Human judgement remains essential, but it cannot be the only way to interpret and apply rules at scale. Systems need structured, executable representations of regulation to ensure consistency, traceability, and reliability.
This is why Norm Engineering is becoming a critical competence. It enables legislation to be translated into clearly defined elements such as conditions, decisions, and relationships, which can be directly applied within digital processes. This supports more consistent decision-making, improves traceability, and ensures that outcomes can be explained and linked back to their legal basis.
“Legal complexity is a decades-old challenge for governments and organizations with real citizen and economic implications,” said Hugo Ehrnreich, CEO of Be Informed. “The ambition has always been to unlock – and unblock – growth and value by making regulation more accessible through technology. What is new and exciting is that the combination of norm engineering, interoperable standards such as FLINT, and AI-driven productivity, now finally gives us the means to translate legislation into machine-readable norms and guide automated processes at scale.”
Unleashing the full value of Norm Engineering at scale
For years, norm engineering remained largely confined to research and isolated initiatives. That is now changing. A combination of technological, organizational, and practical developments is enabling its application at scale.
Four central themes emerged throughout the conference:
- From 2 days to 14 seconds: AI is enhancing the speed at which regulations can be structured: Advances in AI, including LLMs and agentic models, are accelerating the translation of legal texts into structured, machine-readable versions, while supporting human validation and oversight
- Standards such as FLINT and Legal Analysis provide a shared foundation: Interoperable frameworks enable regulatory knowledge to be modeled consistently, supporting reuse and integration across systems
- A growing ecosystem of practitioners is aligning around the approach: Governments, academia, and industry are increasingly collaborating to move from theory to execution, building shared methods, models, and practices
- Critical mass in real-world applications are proving value: Practical implementations are showing how machine-readable regulation can support digital public services, improve explainability, and accelerate legislative change
“What we are seeing now is a shift from experimentation to real implementation,” said Pauline Kampinga, CMO at Be Informed. “With AI we can significantly accelerate the process of structuring regulations into machine-readable norms. Through a human-in-the-loop validation process, we still ensure the accuracy and legal correctness of that structure. Once regulations are captured in machine-readable form, they can be used across operational systems to support more consistent decisions, faster implementation of regulatory change, and more citizen-friendly public services.”
From concept to use cases: Norm Engineering in action
Across the conference, speakers demonstrated how norm engineering is moving into real-world applications. Matthew Gracie (Deloitte) and Hugo Ehrnreich (Be Informed) set the tone by highlighting how advances in AI and structured regulatory modeling are enabling the shift from ambition to action.
Several contributions focused on AI and explainability. Tom van Engers and Sander Klous (University of Amsterdam) addressed the need for transparency, traceability, and accountability in automated decision-making, while Maaike de Boer (TNO) showed how combining structured legal norms with AI supports regulatory analysis and implementation.
The importance of standards and collaboration was reflected in contributions from Robert van Doesburg (TNO) and Vincent van Dijk (Pharosius), who demonstrated how shared models improve interoperability. Ivar Timmer (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences) highlighted the growing need for interdisciplinary skills through the GRIP framework.
Real-world applications showed how these concepts are already being applied. Geert Rensen and Ronald Heller (Be Informed) presented use cases supporting legislation, government execution, and compliance. Stijn Vandeweyer and Sara Maes (Deloitte) demonstrated how norm engineering and AI support complex permitting processes.
Matthew Gracie (Deloitte) illustrated how FLINT-enabled analytics integrate with human-in-the-loop validation. Martijn Ligthart (Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations) and Matthijs ten Hoedt (KVK / Chamber of Commerce) showed how machine-readable regulation supports national-scale services and more agile implementation of legislation.
Together, these contributions show that norm engineering is no longer conceptual but actively taking shape in practice.
Norm Engineering is defining digital regulation
The conference closed with a clear message: norm engineering is becoming a central approach to translating complex legislation into digital, operational systems. As digital execution of regulation becomes the norm, organizations need the capability to ensure decisions are applied consistently, transparently, and under control.
Discussions emphasized the importance of continued collaboration between governments, academia, and technology providers to advance the implementation of machine-readable regulation. Insights shared during the event are expected to contribute to future policy development, compliance strategies, and research across the evolving RegTech ecosystem.
Deloitte, TNO, the University of Amsterdam, and Be Informed reaffirmed their commitment to continuing this work and supporting the adoption of norm engineering as a foundation for modern digital regulation.
About the hosts
- Deloitte: A global professional services firm offering audit, consulting, tax, and advisory services.
- Be Informed: A SaaS company specializing in regulatory technology, providing intelligent automation solutions for compliance and decision-making processes.
- TNO: The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research, focused on promoting innovation through applied research.
- University of Amsterdam (UvA): A leading research university contributing expertise in legal knowledge management and digital regulation.
Media Contact
Pauline Kampinga
Chief Marketing Officer
contact@beinformed.com
