The need for a stronger national AI strategy is sparking debate. At the same time, a new global survey shows that Swedish businesses have fallen behind other European countries over the past year.
The AI Readiness Index is a global study from Cisco, now published for the second consecutive year. In the 2023 study, Swedish companies were among the most advanced in Europe in planning and implementing AI. However, the results published this November present a markedly less flattering picture for Sweden.
Based on responses to numerous questions, participating organizations are grouped into four categories according to how far they have progressed on their AI journey: leaders, hunters, followers and laggards. In this year’s study only five percent of Swedish companies are classified as leaders — down from 22 percent in the 2023 report. Nearly three quarters of companies, 73 percent, fall into one of the two lowest categories, compared with 56 percent in 2023.
From being near the top in Europe, Sweden has been overtaken in a year by several comparable countries. Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, for example, show faster progress.
”A tremendous amount is happening extremely quickly in AI development, and it’s a race involving virtually every industry and organization. This is not a sprint but a marathon where endurance matters as much as explosive progress. It’s far too early to declare winners and losers. Still, the further you fall behind the more effort it will take to close the gap, even though there’s still a long way to go,” says Thomas Brännström, CTO of Cisco Sweden.
In the strategy dimension — where Sweden stood out positively in last year’s survey — the share of leaders has dropped from 37 percent to 12 percent.
The question of strategy has been brought sharply into focus in Sweden by the report from the AI Commission that its chair Carl-Henric Svanberg presented to the government on 26 November, more than six months ahead of its originally planned public release. The report paints an urgent picture and recommends a range of government-level measures and investments to help the public sector and industry raise preparedness in key areas such as research, skills development, cybersecurity, and access to computing power and infrastructure.
”Our survey confirms the AI Commission’s assessment that Sweden’s current pace of AI development is slower than that of comparable countries, and it is both important and welcome that concrete proposals are already on the table. All parts of society have a role to play in the ongoing race, and we look forward to participating in the dialogue and contributing with concrete measures where we can support progress,” says Thomas Brännström.
Cisco AI Readiness Index is based on responses from nearly 8,000 decision-makers at companies with more than 500 employees across 30 countries. The study includes 150 Swedish organizations and measures AI readiness across six categories: strategy, infrastructure, data, governance, skills and culture.