Sweden leading the way in artificial intelligence

Tax payers should get more for their money, which is one of the overarching goals of the Government’s AI policy.

In May 2025, the Government presented its ‘Digitalisation Strategy 2025–2030’. A common theme throughout the Strategy is the use of AI solutions to improve efficiency and competitiveness. The next step is to develop an AI-specific strategy for Sweden, which will be presented in the first half of 2026.

“AI has great potential to streamline the public sector and improve public service. AI solutions can also address many of the challenges facing municipalities and regions that have declining populations. By reducing the amount of time spent on administration, workloads can be lightened and more time can go towards core activities,” says Minister for Public Administration Erik Slottner.

Good examples from the fight against swine fever and spruce bark beetles

The Government’s policy aims to facilitate and accelerate the use and development of AI in the public sector. In fact, many government agencies, municipalities and regions are already using AI to improve their activities. 

Following Sweden’s first outbreak of African swine fever, AI was used for image recognition in efforts to monitor wild boar activities in the infected zone in Västmanland. Sweden was able to successfully fight off the virus and declare the country free from the disease in record time.

Similarly, the Swedish Forest Agency used an AI image recognition solution to identify trees invested by spruce bark beetles, which are the insects that do by far the most harm to our spruce forests. Using flight and satellite data together with AI, large swathes of forest can be monitored in a cost-effective way, and necessary measures taken in time.

Quicker service and more efficient controls

Chatbots are an entirely different type of AI service that can answer routine questions and connect clients with experts if necessary. For example, the Swedish Pensions Agency has a chatbot called ‘Penni’ that answers general questions related to pensions. The Swedish Tax Agency has a similar bot called ‘Skatti’ that answers general questions about population registration and income tax declarations for private individuals.

The Swedish Tax Agency also uses AI systems for tasks such as sorting incoming email and controlling and analysing large quantities of data. The Swedish Social Insurance Agency and the Swedish Public Employment Service are two government agencies that use AI to help process cases.

The Swedish Unemployment Insurance Inspectorate has developed an AI model to identify unknown erroneous unemployment benefit disbursements made by unemployment insurance funds, which is something the funds themselves have difficulty discovering on their own. 

AI that understands dialects and reads handwriting from the 17th century

The National Library of Sweden has developed its own AI model to transcribe speech to text. This model is trained specifically to understand wide variations in the Swedish language, which can help make it easier to search within the Library’s collections. 

The Swedish National Archives developed an AI model that can read handwritten Swedish texts from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. This facilitates interpreting and digitalising old documents, thus making them more accessible.

AI in welfare

A number of good examples of AI being used to increase efficiency and quality can be found in the welfare system. For example, several regions use AI to analyse samples and X-ray plates. AI is also being tested at Uppsala University Hospital as a means of preventing fall injuries among older people. The Hospital uses an AI-assisted camera to analyse patient movement patterns. If the system identifies a risk of falling, it issues an alert. 

Nacka Municipality is testing transcription tools to reduce the time social workers spend on documentation, which frees up more time for face-to-face meetings.

“Sweden’s strength lies not only in innovation, but also in how that innovation is made widely available and usable in our society. Sweden is one of the most digitalised countries not only in Europe, but the entire world – and that applies to both businesses and government agencies. It is essential to our future prosperity that we continue to be a forerunner in new technologies, and the steps we’re taking now are laying the groundwork for this. This will strengthen Swedish competitiveness and make our country wealthier,” says Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.