At Rise of AI 2026 in Berlin, Thomas Jarzombek, Parliamentary State Secretary at Germany's digitalization ministry, reviews his first year in office and argues Germany should turn its industrial strength into AI competitiveness. He describes ongoing EU trilogue negotiations to simplify the AI Act, including extending high-risk-system deadlines by a year and working to exempt the Machinery Directive from the Act's scope, alongside a national German AI Act and a planned one-stop-shop regulatory model. He presents three government AI projects: Spark, an open-source tool that checks infrastructure-project paperwork in hours instead of about half a year and can cut approval time in half; the Agentic AI Hub, which pairs startups with municipalities to modernize legacy government software; and the Deutschland Stack, a sovereign compute platform built on European cloud providers. He argues against building an independent European alternative to US large language models, favoring what he calls blended sovereignty, integrating strong German startups into global AI supply chains instead. In Q&A he discusses SME adoption, shadow AI use by public servants, and the upcoming EU Digital Identity Wallet.
Key takeaways
- Jarzombek says EU trilogue talks aim to exempt the Machinery Directive from the AI Act's scope and have already made rules easier for SMEs and extended high-risk-system deadlines by a year.
- His ministry's open-source tool Spark checks infrastructure-project paperwork in hours instead of about half a year and can cut approval time in half.
- The Agentic AI Hub matched nine startups with 20 municipalities from a pool of almost 400 startups and about 200 interested municipalities to modernize legacy government software.
- Jarzombek argues for 'blended sovereignty', integrating strong German startups into global AI supply chains, rather than building an independent European alternative to US large language models.
- He says the EU Digital Identity Wallet, a central ID and credential tool, launches on 2 January with about 150 business partners already testing it.
Detailed notes
Simplifying the EU AI Act
Jarzombek opens by marking Rise of AI's tenth anniversary and reflecting on his first year as State Secretary. He says the day of the talk coincides with a crucial EU trilogue session on simplifying AI regulation, part of what he calls the omnibus format, and lists results already achieved: easier rules for SMEs, a one-year extension of the deadline for high-risk systems, and the deletion of unconditional requirements such as mandatory training on AI tools. He says the current fight is over integrating the Machinery Directive with the AI Act, with Germany proposing a lex specialis approach to get machinery out of the AI Act's scope, though he expects only a partial "landing zone" rather than a full solution. Domestically, he describes a national German AI Act and a planned one-stop-shop model, where an industry's existing regulator also handles its AI questions.
Three AI projects: Spark, the Agentic AI Hub and the Deutschland Stack
He presents Spark, an open-source AI tool built by his ministry that checks whether documents for large infrastructure projects, such as bridges or railroads, are complete and consistent; a check that used to take about half a year now takes hours, and he says the tool can cut the overall approval process time in half, with more releases planned. He describes the Agentic AI Hub, created because officials previously had no incentive to work with startups: it matched a first batch of nine startups with 20 municipalities, addressing a landscape of more than 20,000 fragmented, often legacy municipal software systems, out of a pool of almost 400 interested startups and about 200 open municipalities, with plans to scale successful pairings to 50 or 100 municipalities. Third, he describes the Deutschland Stack, a standard framework and sovereign compute platform his ministry is building for other government departments, tendered to European cloud providers for digital sovereignty.
"Blended sovereignty" instead of a separate European AI stack
Jarzombek pushes back on the idea that Europe should build a complete alternative technology ecosystem to the US, saying he does not believe Europe can compete head-on in large language models given how far ahead US players are in model quality, GPU access, talent and venture capital. Instead, he advocates what he calls blended or connected sovereignty: integrating strong German and European startups, such as a Siegen-based quantum computing company backed by Schwarz Digits and the photonics startup Black Semiconductor from Aachen, into the global supply chains of providers like Azure, AWS and Google, creating mutual dependency that strengthens both sides.
The government's role: experimentation, not subsidies or bailouts
On whether government should subsidize AI adoption at large enterprises, Jarzombek is skeptical, saying industry knows best what to do for itself; he sees government's role as being a lead user, reducing regulatory hurdles, and supporting SMEs through existing support programs. He argues industry adoption of AI is uneven across sectors and warns that companies which wait too long risk losing competitiveness, stating that no government can protect companies that stop being competitive.
Q&A highlights
Asked why startups struggle to sell AI into SMEs, Jarzombek says the market itself will sort winners from laggards, illustrating adoption with an anecdote about craftsmen using a drone to inspect a leaking roof before repairing it. On working with municipalities first, he says local government is citizens' first point of contact with the state and a lower-risk place to experiment than, for instance, interior-ministry systems, and that the Agentic AI Hub favors adapting existing solutions rather than building new ones. Asked about a public app store for municipal services, he says more competition is needed, since public IT offices currently often face none, and warns about "shadow AI," public servants using personal AI tools with internal or personal data because official tools are not yet good enough. Asked to reflect on his first year, he contrasts the previous fragmentation of digital policy across several ministries with the current dedicated ministry, and highlights the EU Digital Identity Wallet, a central ID and credential tool launching on 2 January with about 150 business partners already testing it.
Quotes
The business of the future is the business of AI.
Thomas Jarzombek
No politician and no government can protect companies that are not being competitive anymore in Germany.
Thomas Jarzombek
Today you can experiment with AI. Today you can make mistakes.
Thomas Jarzombek
Questions answered in this talk
What is Germany doing to simplify the EU AI Act for industry?
According to Thomas Jarzombek at Rise of AI 2026, Germany pushed for a one-year extension on high-risk-system deadlines, deletion of some unconditional training requirements, an effort to exempt the Machinery Directive from the AI Act's scope, a national German AI Act, and a planned one-stop-shop model where an industry's existing regulator also handles its AI questions.
What is Spark, the German government's AI tool?
According to Thomas Jarzombek at Rise of AI 2026, Spark is an open-source AI tool built by his ministry that checks whether the paperwork for large infrastructure projects, like bridges or railroads, is complete and consistent, cutting a check that used to take about half a year down to hours and roughly halving overall approval time.
Does the German government want to build a European alternative to US AI models like ChatGPT and Claude?
According to Thomas Jarzombek at Rise of AI 2026, no; he argues Europe cannot currently compete head-on on large language models given US leads in model quality, GPU access, talent and capital, and instead favors 'blended sovereignty', integrating strong German startups into global AI supply chains.