EU launches dual AI strategies: what public leaders need to act on now
Europe is moving fast on AI adoption with two major strategies: Apply AI and AI in Science. Backed by billions, they are the first steps toward the AI Continent Action Plan, which includes building AI gigafactories in Europe.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen set the tone: "I want the future of AI to be made in Europe." The message to ministries and agencies is clear-adopt an AI-first mindset, move responsibly, and scale where value is clear.
Apply AI: deployment at scale across public and strategic sectors
The Apply AI Strategy focuses on real-world deployment across priority domains. This includes healthcare, pharmaceuticals, energy, mobility, manufacturing, construction, agri-food, defense, communications, and culture.
- Funding: around €1 billion to accelerate adoption in public services and industry.
- Healthcare: AI-powered advanced screening centers to improve early detection and care pathways.
- Models: support for frontier models and agentic AI tuned for sectors like pharma, manufacturing, and the environment.
- SMEs: targeted support and an "AI first" policy to reduce barriers to adoption.
- Innovation access: European Digital Innovation Hubs become Experience Centers for AI to offer hands-on pilots and expertise.
- Coordination: Apply AI Alliance created to align actions across stakeholders.
- Compliance: the AI Act Service Desk is set up to help implement the EU AI Act.
Henna Virkkunen underscored the goal: strengthen Europe's technological sovereignty and competitiveness. Susanne Dehmel called the strategy a step that places AI inside economic value creation, public administration, and research.
AI in Science: RAISE and the infrastructure behind discovery
The AI in Science Strategy establishes RAISE, a virtual European institute coordinating resources to apply and develop AI for science. It is designed to give researchers and startups consistent access to models, data, and compute.
- Research: annual Horizon Europe investments in AI to more than €3 billion.
- Compute: €600 million from Horizon Europe to ensure dedicated access, including to AI gigafactories.
- Talent: €58 million via the RAISE pilot for Networks of Excellence and Doctoral Networks to attract global researchers under "Choose Europe."
Why this matters for government
Public institutions can use these programs to modernize services while staying within EU rules. The emphasis on safety-first AI supports risk-managed deployments in health, mobility, energy, and defense.
Funding, compute, and support structures reduce time to pilot and time to scale. This is also a competitiveness issue: procurement choices today set capabilities for the next decade.
Immediate actions for ministries and agencies
- Name an AI lead and cross-functional task force (policy, IT, legal, procurement, ethics).
- Shortlist 3-5 high-impact use cases (e.g., triage and screening, case management, asset maintenance, fraud detection, permit processing).
- Stand up data readiness: inventories, access controls, quality standards, and privacy-by-design.
- Engage an Experience Center for AI via your European Digital Innovation Hub to run a 90-day pilot.
- Prepare for AI Act compliance: risk classification, documentation, human oversight, testing, and incident reporting. Use the AI Act Service Desk for guidance.
- Include SMEs and research partners; design procurement that allows iterative delivery and model updates.
- Upskill teams on prompt design, evaluation, and oversight; set a baseline training pathway for program owners and auditors.
- Create budget lines for secure compute, data pipelines, and model monitoring. Track cost-to-serve, service levels, and safety metrics.
Key policy signals
Von der Leyen called for AI to be made in Europe and used widely across sectors-with safety as a guardrail. This aligns with the EU's goal to speed smarter, faster, more affordable solutions in public services and industry.
Dehmel highlighted the shift in awareness: AI becomes part of how the EU creates value across government and research. Virkkunen emphasized sovereignty and competitiveness as core outcomes.
Next milestones
- Data Union Strategy due at the end of October to enable seamless access to high-quality, structured data for AI.
- AI in Science Summit, Copenhagen, Nov. 3-4, 2025, with first initiatives under the AI in Science Strategy.
Helpful resources
- European Commission: Artificial Intelligence (includes AI Act information)
- Horizon Europe overview
- Complete AI Training: courses by job for quick paths to upskill public-sector teams
Bottom line: treat AI as core infrastructure. Start with a few well-governed pilots, apply the EU support on offer, and scale what proves value and safety.
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