Could European Businesses Really Replace US Technology? | BCS Oxfordshire branch

As technology leaders, we sometimes have to ask ourselves “what if the worst happened”, rather than “what would we like to happen”. In that spirit, we set ourselves the challenge to ask: “What if access to US tech was suddenly cut off? Could European businesses still function in a world without American technology?” The previously close relationship between Europe and the US is more tense now than it has been for decades. If economic or political strains led to tariffs or export restrictions, how exposed are European companies to their dependence on American technology? The simple answer: very. Almost every organisation relies on technologies built by teams with US HQs. These geopolitical shifts raise important questions about vendor dependency, resilience, and technology risk mitigation. In this talk, we explore whether a viable non-US workplace technology stack exists and how it compares in usability, cost, and integration with existing workflows.