“AI Agenda Austria”: Catalysts for society, the economy and the state
The Artificial Intelligence working group has published strategic impulses for handling artificial intelligence in a policy brief. The paper “AI Agenda Austria – Impulses for Society, the Economy and the State” – written by Horst Bischof, Thomas Henzinger, Georg Kopetz, Andreas Kugi, Helga Nowotny and Johanna Pirker – is also intended as input for the new AI strategy planned by the federal government.
“We must quickly answer the question of what position Austria should aspire to in this race.”
Johanna Pirker
“The technological and economic leading positions of the coming decades are being allocated right now. We must quickly answer the question of what position Austria should aspire to in this race, and how we can secure our – and also Europe’s – sovereignty in the long term,” says Johanna Pirker, head of the working group. In the view of the working group, the global social and economic transformation triggered by artificial intelligence – and the speed at which it is taking place – is still being underestimated. “We therefore encourage the federal government to take on an active, visionary role in shaping this transformation with greater determination and greater speed.”
New AI strategy is a positive and important signal
“We see it as an important signal that the federal government is taking up our recommendation and intends to develop an adaptable, future-proof strategy.”
Thomas Henzinger
The policy brief comes at a time when the federal government has agreed to develop a new AI strategy to replace the current strategy from 2021. “Together with the AI Advisory Board, we already recommended in 2024 that the existing AI strategy be revised in light of increasingly rapid developments. We see it as a positive and important signal that the federal government is now taking up this recommendation and intends to develop an adaptable, future-proof strategy that does justice to the dynamism and significance of AI,” explains Thomas Henzinger, chair of the Council.
The working group also regards the anchoring of artificial intelligence as a key technology in Austria’s industrial strategy, the integration of AI in teaching, and the government’s AI conclave as steps in the right direction.
Henzinger: “Seize the opportunity for Austria in the right way”
In terms of content, the policy brief outlines three central impulses that illustrate the breadth of the measures and objectives: an AI-literate society through AI competence at all levels of education, a European economy that is productive, technologically strong and sovereign thanks to AI – for instance through the establishment of research and development departments of global AI companies – and an AI-driven renewal of public administration in order to transform it into an exemplary pioneer.
Austria should also position itself internationally as a “Trusted AI Jurisdiction” – that is, as a location with a mature, binding regulatory framework and certification apparatus that ensures artificial intelligence systems are developed and deployed in a lawful, ethical and technically robust manner. “Ultimately, what will be decisive is not the quality of the strategy alone, but the ability to translate it swiftly into research, innovation, economic value creation and social benefit. We still have the opportunity to position Austria as an AI-literate and AI-affine country in the international race – let us seize it properly and quickly,” Henzinger urges.
