Sweden is standing still in the AI race.
Sweden’s AI Future: A Call to Action
In December 2024, I wrote that the situation was not just urgent, but critical. I warned that we had 6-12 months before passing a potential “tipping point.” That time is almost up. And what have the politicians done since then? In principle, nothing.
While Germany has launched its AI Act with a dedicated 30 billion fund, the UK has opened its second AI safety authority, France is attracting the world’s leading AI labs to Paris, and US venture capital flows to AI have tripled, Sweden remains still. The AI Commission’s report is still not concretized into political action. No decisive reforms. No national mobilization. No state fund. Just more investigation and more anxiety. Climate, LGBTQ issues, immigration, NATO, and the Palestine issue are important, but AI is about the entire future of our country. We MUST get this right! Otherwise, Sweden loses its future.
We don’t lack potential, we lack political courage. We have plenty of innovation and vision, but our young AI generation is starting to give up.
Innovative start-ups are struggling for survival. Promising ideas die in pitch rooms where investors back away due to the lack of public co-financing, slow government handling, and fear of standing out. I have spoken with young entrepreneurs who are ready to leave the country. Not because they want to, but because they have to. AI talents are moving to Paris, Berlin, Boston, Singapore. There is capital, support, risk appetite, and above all: faith in the future.
We should be an epicenter for AI, but instead, we risk missing out on our potential and falling helplessly behind. We must not become a country where dreams of the future are ground down in bureaucratic mills.
The media has capitulated and the politicians are ducking! Instead of discussing a lot of nonsense, all journalists must open their eyes to AI and how we strategically use AI to build a stronger Sweden. This is not like when the media slept on how the internet would develop and affect us. This time, it’s about a totally society-changing Tsunami. Politics must also wake up. Not to come up with more prohibition proposals but for massive and offensive investments.
I understand that the government is having a tough time, but they must take a holistic approach to AI now and prioritize it above everything else. Sweden needs a vision and a goal to become Europe’s most attractive AI nation within five years. It requires investment, reforms, and above all: courage. It is not enough with AI strategies written by investigators, it requires action by leaders. Cost what it may!
2025-2026 must be the AI years. The people will understand. The 2026 election must be about AI. Otherwise, it’s too late! Here is what is still required, but now with increased urgency:
- A Swedish AI fund of at least 25 billion SEK, with a mandate to match all private investments and support both research, infrastructure, and applications.
- An AI reform in education, not only where AI and coding become core subjects from primary school up to university but also an opportunity for all residents to learn how to use AI now. We need AI labs, hackathons, and innovation initiatives in every municipality.
- Regulatory reform, which makes it easy to start and scale AI companies in Sweden. Create regulatory sandboxes, fast tracks for ethical review, and incentives for companies to dare to implement AI solutions in the public sector.
- A communication campaign, not about the threats, but about the opportunities. Let the people understand what is actually at stake.
Sweden needs a technological social contract! AI is not a future issue but a survival issue. It affects our competitiveness, our jobs, our defense, our healthcare, our schools, our democracy. Everything!
I was optimistic in December. I am still hopeful, but now damn frustrated. We have gifted people. We have capital. We have technological history. But we lack direction. We lack pressure in the system. We lack the vision and leadership that drives the AI issue.
So I say it again:
The future is not waiting. Either we create it, or we will be created by it? This is our last chance to act with force. Next time I write about this, it will either be as a reminder of what we could have become, or as a testimony of a country that, after all, got going and dared.
Johan Staël von Holstein
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