2023 is regarded as the breakthrough year for AI, thanks to ChatGPT. And this is only the current peak of development that companies and institutions in the Greater Zurich Area (GZA) have been accompanying for decades. "We can rightly refer to the region as an AI valley," says Riccarda Mecklenburg, entrepreneur, and president of the VFU Women's Business Association. This has been driven by both private and public commitment. About two years ago, the cantons of Zurich and Schwyz launched the AI initiative AiCon to make the AI location more visible. Partners include companies and the Greater Zurich Area. In this context, the leading Swiss AI conference, the AiCon AI Strategy Forum, took place. 300 executives from all industries attended the fully booked conference in Pfäffikon, Canton of Schwyz, at the invitation of the two cantons and the C-Level business network.
The Zurich economic area is a global AI hub
The basis for the AI movement is research in the economic region, such as at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH) or at the Dalle-Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Lugano. In this context, corporate collaborations and innovative spin-offs are created; highly sought-after specialists are trained. "A veritable AI hub has now developed around the excellent research - naturally with start-ups, but also with international tech companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, or IBM and across all industries with established companies that advance and integrate AI," says Raphael von Thiessen, Project Lead New Technologies of the Canton of Zurich.
At the AI Strategy Forum, von Thiessen presented the Innovation Sandbox for Artificial Intelligence of the canton of Zurich. In the first round, five projects that are now supported in regulatory matters and provided with data were selected. Raphael von Thiessen: "We are creating a test environment for AI, gathering experiences and making them available to the community." The results are also intended to be forward-looking about future regulation. The projects focus on smart parking solutions through image recognition, drone-based infrastructure maintenance, and autonomous driving.
AI is revolutionizing all industries
In recent years, very different AI focal points have emerged economically. For example, the ETH spin-off Deepjudge aims to revolutionize work in the legal sector: Its AI-supported software extracts relevant information from thousands of documents and takes over time-consuming tasks as a virtual assistant.
Moreover, security is a strong overarching theme in GZA's AI ecosystem. An example of this is LatticeFlow from Zurich, which is part of the AI 100 list of the world's most promising AI start-ups by CB Insights for the second time in 2023. Its platform enables the development of robust and trustworthy AI solutions. Also recently causing an international stir was the Zurich-based start-up Lakera AI, which offers security checks for AI programs. Lakera has launched an online game called Gandalf AI to uncover security gaps in so-called Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT. The players aim to trick a secret password out of an AI chatbot, thus helping Lakera fix vulnerabilities.
The financial industry has been a driver for AI applications at the location for years. Here, AI will fundamentally change work, emphasized Marion Leslie, head of financial information at SIX Group. As a leading Swiss service provider for economic infrastructure, SIX uses AI support solutions, for example. "Especially in the compliance sector, we see great potential," said Leslie.
AI movement attracts companies
Established companies like SIX are an important factor in ecosystem development. And in this, AI is now a priority, according to the results of the Top Executive Study published at the Strategy Forum. C-Level evaluated responses from executives from over 210 companies in Switzerland, including the NZZ Group, Sprüngli, Sunrise, and ABB. 85 percent indicated that AI was the most important digitization topic for them. 70 percent assign high or very high potential to AI. "Executives recognize the significance of AI," concluded Selcuk Boydak, who presented the study at the Strategy Forum. He is an investor and co-founder of the AI Business School and Global AI Hub talent community-based in the Canton of Schwyz.
This atmosphere attracts international AI companies to the economic area. A current example is Qualitest, a global service provider for engineering solutions based on AI, which wants to open a location in Zug and create jobs. Qualitest focuses on the financial sector but also healthcare or tech companies. In a statement, Managing Director Shai Liberman emphasizes: "Our engineering and testing services will serve the growing demand from developers and companies settling in Switzerland. We are very excited to tap into this growing community."
Artificial intelligence in Greater Zurich
Artificial intelligence in Greater Zurich
Switzerland and the Greater Zurich Area have occupied top positions in renowned worldwide rankings on innovative strength and talent availability. Greater Zurich’s various research institutes, such as ETH Zurich and its AI Center as well as the Swiss AI Lab IDSIA, continue to rank as some of the leading technical institutes in the world and attract the best talents and companies including Google, IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle and many others.
