The researchers, founders and leaders shaping the future of AI in Switzerland. Women are at the heart of Switzerland's AI ecosystem: they train models, build companies, run infrastructure, write the rules and connect the community. The second edition of the Top 100+ Women in AI, Data and Robotics: Switzerland 2026 report gives them the visibility they deserve, now with robotics included and with in-depth portraits of the people behind the names.
What's new in 2026
The first report travelled further than we expected. We took the feedback seriously, above all the wish to represent more of Switzerland. This year's edition brings in researchers and founders from Lausanne, Lugano, Lucerne, Valais and Eastern Switzerland alongside Zurich. It adds robotics as a third field, since Switzerland is where much of Europe's physical AI is being built. It also goes beyond the list, with long-form portraits of eleven women whose stories deserve more than a line.
At the launch event
On 23 September 2026, women from the list gathered at the ETH AI Center to celebrate the launch of the second edition. After a welcome by Melanie Gabriel and an introduction to this year's focus on tangible impact by Daria Mühlethaler, the evening continued over an apéro by CREATEQ with new connections and concrete ideas for moving the ecosystem forward.
5 inspiring examples from the report
Prof. Eleni Chatzi, ETH Zurich
She has taught bridges, trains and wind turbines to report on their own condition before anything breaks. Her real-time digital twins turn wind farm simulations that once took weeks into seconds, and help SBB plan maintenance on the Swiss rail network before problems appear.
Naghmeh Ghazaleh, Roche
She built the LLM-based platform that lets Roche's clinical scientists query mountains of trial data in plain language, cutting regulatory response times roughly sevenfold. Her machine-learning work also helped lift a partial hold on a multiple sclerosis trial, so a treatment reached patients sooner.
Mireille El Gheche, Softbank Robotics
For five years at Sony AI, she helped lead the research behind a table tennis robot that beat three of five elite players, work that made the cover of Nature. Her conviction: robotics is where intelligence has to deal with reality.
Zeynep Savaseri, HerCode
No network, no budget, no playbook. In September 2025 she started building HerCode, a community for women in tech. Within its first year it grew past 700 members from more than nine countries, without spending anything on marketing.
Prof. Yulia Sandamirskaya, ZHAW and YuRo / Auroniq Robotics
Her vision systems, modelled on the human eye, let robot arms react safely to people in real time. After a first trial in a care home in Horgen, more than 100 Swiss care facilities have expressed interest in robotic assistants that give staff more time for the people in front of them.
Our methodology
The Top 100+ Women in AI, Data and Robotics: Switzerland 2026 report was compiled by a core team: Melanie Gabriel (ETH AI Center), Daria Mühlethaler (Createq), Daniel Naeff (ETH AI Center) and Christian Lüscher (GZA).
- The report draws on two sources: a broad list of nominated candidates and a self-nomination survey in which women described their own projects and achievements.
- Inclusion was based on demonstrable impact in at least one of four dimensions: business impact, societal impact in Switzerland, innovation, and academic and scientific advancement.
- Consultancies and large international tech corporations were deliberately excluded to keep the focus on Switzerland's own AI ecosystem.
- Every nomination was reviewed and validated by the core team. Once again, the biggest challenge was not finding enough names, but limiting the list to just over 100.
The result is not a ranking. It is a snapshot of the breadth and quality with which women are already shaping AI in Switzerland.