The State of Valais is making AVA (Assistant Valaisan Augmenté), its sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) platform, available to its entire administration. Developed by the Cantonal IT Service (SCI), it combines open models, including the Swiss model Apertus, and keeps data on the canton's infrastructure. ICTjournal and Inside IT reported the announcement on 6 November 2026. The canton puts its cost at 2 francs per month per daily active user.
What AVA does in the Valais administration
AVA is first and foremost used for everyday office tasks. According to the cantonal press release quoted by ICTjournal, the tool helps with drafting, summarising, translating and searching for information. Inside IT specifies that it works like ChatGPT and can be accessed from a computer and a mobile phone.
The platform has already been tested on a large scale. More than 2,000 staff members used it during the pilot phase, according to both media outlets. It also offers specialised assistants: AVA RH for human resources, AVA Juriste and AVA Parlement, according to the presentation given to the press.
Other uses had been described earlier. On 29 September 2026, Florian Bersier, head of the AI unit at the SCI, presented AVA during an online session organised by the aiLights association. The announcement for that session mentions transcribing audio recordings into minutes and an assistant for the SAP management software.
The canton sets limits. The press release states that no individual decision is automated and that answers remain subject to human verification. According to Inside IT, Franziska Biner, State Councillor and head of the Department of Finance and Energy, gave assurances that the system replaces neither human expertise nor jobs. Training courses and guidelines accompany the rollout.
Apertus, Mistral and Qwen on infrastructure controlled by the canton
AVA does not rely on a single model. The presentation quoted by ICTjournal mentions in particular Apertus, Mistral and Qwen, which are open language models. They are combined with a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architecture: the tool queries the administration's internal document databases.
Where the processing takes place is at the heart of the project. Again according to ICTjournal, the answers are computed on dedicated graphics processing units (GPUs) located in Switzerland, and the databases are hosted on cantonal servers. “No data goes to foreign providers,” Franziska Biner told the media, according to Inside IT. Staff members' conversations are not used to train the models.
The choice of Apertus carries particular meaning for a Swiss administration. This Swiss language model was released on 2 September 2025 by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). Updated to version 1.5 on 24 July 2026, it is distributed under the Apache 2.0 licence, which permits commercial use. The sources on AVA do not say which version Valais uses, nor which model handles which task.
The timeline was short. Development began in April 2026 and took six months, according to ICTjournal. The platform now includes more than 50 tools and agents.
Why did Valais develop its own AI?
The canton cites confidentiality first. “A large part of administrative work involves confidential and sensitive data, whose use with freely accessible commercial services is problematic, or even prohibited,” explained Franziska Biner, quoted by the Walliser Bote and picked up by Inside IT. Without an in-house offering, the administration would, in her view, risk uncontrolled use of these tools.
The risk is not theoretical, according to the State Councillor. Many employees are said to be already using AI tools, which poses a security problem. The Valais government programme in fact lists the “framework for the use of artificial intelligence within the administration” among its priority measures, under its objective of optimising the institutions' capacity to act.
What is the announced cost of 2 francs per month worth?
The figure is an estimate by the canton, not a market price. It refers to a daily active user, not to every employee with access.
The comparison with the private sector varies between media outlets. ICTjournal writes that this cost is at least twenty times lower than that of a commercial solution, according to the canton's estimate. Inside IT reports a different formulation from Florian Bersier: at least 20 francs less than a commercial solution. The two comparisons do not lead to the same order of magnitude.
Our analysis: neither source names the commercial benchmark solution or what the 2-franc amount covers. It is therefore unknown whether it includes the development team's salaries or the purchase of the GPUs. The figure mainly serves to indicate an order of magnitude, not to compare offerings.
AVA among public AI projects in Switzerland
Valais is not the only administration seeking an AI that keeps its data in Switzerland. The table places AVA alongside other documented public projects.
| Administration | Project | Users | Technology according to the sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canton of Valais | AVA, developed by the SCI | Administration staff | Apertus, Mistral, Qwen; GPUs in Switzerland, cantonal servers |
| Canton of Fribourg | fr.ch chatbot, launched in March 2026 | General public | Mistral model, Infomaniak cloud, developed by Liip |
| Canton of Ticino | Internal translation service | Administration | Apertus |
| Confederation | Use of AI in office applications | Federal administration | Not detailed in the Digital Switzerland action plan |
The approaches differ. Fribourg entrusted its chatbot to private providers: the Fribourg company Liip for development, the Infomaniak cloud for hosting and the model of the French company Mistral, according to the State of Fribourg's page. It answers the public using official information only. Ticino, for its part, uses Apertus to translate sensitive documents for its administration, according to the CSCS. The Confederation's Digital Switzerland action plan lists an AI project in office applications, without detailing the tool. Valais chose to develop and operate its platform itself, for its staff.
The private sector is targeting the same demand. The Lausanne start-up Giotto presents its Solo and Alto models as sovereign AI developed in Switzerland. The IT group Elca offers a sovereign AI platform and took a majority stake in Beyond Civic to strengthen its offering for the public sector.
Valais is also looking for partners. According to Inside IT, the canton is aiming for collaboration with other cantons. A sovereign AI can hardly be operated over the long term by a single canton, Florian Bersier believes: a shared Swiss ecosystem would be needed. The AI tools and models section follows these projects.
What is not yet known
- Opening up to municipalities: the tool could gradually be made available to them, as well as to other public institutions, but the canton has not announced a timetable.
- Open-source publication: the canton intends to publish AVA's architecture, with no date or licence announced.
- The chatbot of the Road Traffic and Navigation Service: it has been announced for users, with no launch date. The announcement for the aiLights session already mentioned upcoming access for the public.
Sources
- ICTjournal, Yannick Chavanne, “Le Valais déploie sa propre IA souveraine pour son administration”, 6 November 2026
- Inside IT, “Wallis setzt auf selbst entwickelte KI”, 6 November 2026
- aiLights, “AI @ Swiss Cantons | Valais”, announcement of the session of 29 September 2026
- State of Valais, government programme, “Optimiser la capacité d'action des institutions”
- State of Fribourg, “Une IA éthique pour s'informer sur les prestations de l'administration”
