AI is here to stay! Earlier this year we shared that Linköping Science Park would be the host of AI Swedens new East Node, and since a few weeks back it is up and running. We checked in with Niclas Fock and Karin Ackerholm to look into what this really means to the east realm.

– AI Sweden is the national swedish AI initiative to accelerate the use of AI throughout the swedish society. AI Sweden, former AI Innovation of Sweden, is a partnership organisation and was started in 2019 and is rapidly growing. It is funded by Vinnova, regions and partners, says Niclas Fock who is the East Node Manager.

There are six regional Nodes in Sweden so far: East, North, South, Gothenburg, Greater Stockholm and Örebro. The head office of AI Sweden is located in Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg. AI Sweden works close to it’s partners through the regional offices.

-This new location means that the partners in the east realm can easily access the support and resources of AI Sweden. Also, initiatives both nationally and internationally have a link into the East Node partners for collaborative initiatives. My role as a Senior Project Manager entails exploring needs where AI could be transformative by connecting needs owners to potential project partners, says Karin Ackerholm.

Karin Ackerholm and Niclas Fock.

Become a partner

AI Sweden runs projects in areas as information-driven healthcare, data-driven journalism and AI to help counteract climate change. Partners of AI Sweden get access to a growing network of AI businesses and organisations in Sweden. Today there are more than 100 partners from authorities, municipalities, universities, national and multinational corporations as well as Startup’s and SME’s. Partners are continuously being matched to start projects relevant for their future or current AI businesses.

-AI Sweden has a thorough partner offering, where partners can join focus groups in various areas such as legal queries around AI, change management, gathering and sharing data. AI Sweden arranges a wide range of events, work shops and seminars open for partners or for the public, says Niclas.

“…you should be interested in contributing in the journey of making Sweden among leading nations in AI application…”

Niclas Fock, Node Manager AI Sweden

Partners can also get access to the Data Factory and Edge Lab functioning as a test bed for data sharing and AI development such as algorithms, methods for data access without sharing sensitive data, or generation of synthetic data. There is also several unique Training & Educational programs available.

-As a partner in AI Sweden, you are always a national partner, never a local partner, and you should be interested in contributing in the journey of making Sweden among leading nations in AI application. You are always welcome to contact AI Sweden – on a national or regional level. AI Sweden is an indepentent and non-profit organisation and here to help! continues Niclas.

AI driving development

The focus right now, for Karin and Niclas, are to find interested potential partners and introduce and on-board the partners that already have joined. And finding interesting companies and projects within AI should not be too hard since the region is practically over flowing with them.

-There are plenty of initiatives regarding AI application in many areas simultaneously – agriculture, life science, manufacturing, energy, finance and many other sectors. Companies are either starting to explore AI implementation or have come further to integrate AI application in core business activities. Obvious examples are the meeting of AI with agricultural applications where AI is a component of the ongoing shift to precision farming and forestry. Examples to note are the services offered by Agriopt, Arboair, Agricam and many more, says Karin and Niclas continues:

-Obviously the great work at CMIV (AIDA) is among the strongest AI applications we can be proud of, but there are numerous of other examples, such as the visualisation environment and the work within Visual Sweden. A number of startups and scaleups are emerging and taking lead in their markets such as Cruitive, WoodEye and Interspectral to mention some.

Learn more about the East Node!

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