A global summit on artificial intelligence will be held in Geneva on 21 and 22 June 2027. To prepare for it, digitalswitzerland, the umbrella association for digitalisation in Switzerland, launched a “Swiss AI Action Plan” in 2026, along with a series of events called “Road to Geneva”. The association’s three press releases that trace this roadmap come from a stakeholder that is also an official partner of the summit.

An association’s action plan, not a federal strategy

The Swiss AI Action Plan was presented at the Digital Gipfel Schweiz 2026 in Andermatt, before some 200 participants and more than 25 speakers. According to digitalswitzerland, it was drawn up “in close coordination” with the Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). It is nonetheless a document of the association, which describes it as a “dynamic” roadmap set to evolve with its partners. It is neither a law nor a decision of the Federal Council.

In concrete terms, the plan comprises 23 actions spread across five areas:

  • AI education and literacy: a national awareness campaign from 2027 to train one million people, an adoption guide for SMEs and certificates for public administration professions;
  • Research and innovation: the development of open and transparent Swiss AI models, such as Apertus, and the idea of a “CERN for AI” on a global scale, put forward as a basis for discussion at the Geneva summit;
  • Digital infrastructure: data centre capacity in Switzerland, sized on the basis of a projection of computing power and electricity needs;
  • Data: high-quality public and private datasets that can be linked to one another and are legally secure;
  • Governance: “light-touch”, innovation-friendly regulation that protects fundamental rights and relies on voluntary commitments from the industry.

According to the association, more than 500 experts from business, science and public administration contributed to these 23 actions.

The starting point: a divided population

The plan draws on the DigitalBarometer 2026, a representative survey published by the Risiko-Dialog Foundation, digitalswitzerland and Mobiliar. According to its findings, 48% of respondents expect the opportunities of AI to outweigh the risks within five years. 83% say that a “Made in Switzerland” label strengthens their trust in a digital service, compared with 53% for a European label.

For the first time since 2020, the societal impact of digitalisation is more often seen as negative (41%) than positive (34%), and 24% of respondents say they can no longer keep up. While 80% believe they use AI thoughtfully, only 53% feel truly comfortable with these tools in their daily lives, and 74% fear that AI will eventually weaken creative work and independent thinking.

The Geneva summit, officially announced

The date of the summit was announced by Federal Councillor Albert Rösti at the “AI for Good Global Summit” in Geneva. Its organisation has been entrusted to OFCOM and the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA). digitalswitzerland, an official partner, plans to hold a side event there, provisionally titled “Swiss/Global Hub for Trustworthy AI”, which is to bring together business, science and politics at CERN.

Until then, the “Road to Geneva” includes several stages: the digitalswitzerland forum in Bern in September 2026, followed by the WEF in early 2027.

In Bern, a call on infrastructure

At the Bern forum, Albert Rösti, head of the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC), called the summit a “huge opportunity for Switzerland”, adding that “the foundations have been laid, the funding should materialise and the organisation is under way”. On regulation, he advocated a “Swiss way”: in his view, a very strict general law would risk stifling innovation, and the ideal would be to follow a path “without state intervention”. He also stressed that electricity will be “the absolutely decisive component” of a reliable digital infrastructure.

Franziska Barmettler, director of digitalswitzerland, for her part issued an appeal to Parliament, in the midst of the budget debate. Switzerland has invested more than 180 million francs in the e-ID and the swiyu trust infrastructure, and securing investment in basic digital infrastructure is, in her view, “not negotiable”.

Finally, the forum announced a national AI literacy campaign for 2027, run with SRG SSR, the Federal Chancellery and other partners, under the motto “Understand – Use – Reflect”. It aims to reach more than one million people, thereby taking up the plan’s objective.

Key takeaways

The established facts are the date of the summit, its organisers and the existence of a plan with 23 actions. The rest amounts to intentions, whose funding is not detailed in the press releases. digitalswitzerland’s line, in favour of light-touch regulation and voluntary commitments, aligns with that expressed by Albert Rösti; the association’s texts, however, give no voice to other points of view on this issue. The next steps will show what translates into “measurable results”, in line with the association’s stated goal.

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