At Rise of AI 2022 in Berlin, Christian Guttmann, director of the Nordic Artificial Intelligence Institute, former VP Global Head of AI at Tieto, and a researcher at the Karolinska Institute, shares what he has learned working across Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway. Citing global AI rankings where Finland and Denmark place in the low teens, he attributes Nordic strengths to near-universal internet coverage, a personal-number system linking private and public data such as healthcare records, and high public trust in data sharing, illustrated by Klarna's payment-risk models, cross-registry healthcare analytics he worked on, and Iceland's national DNA biobank. He describes government-backed structures such as Nordic Innovation Houses and the Nordic Council of Ministers, an engineering-heavy but talent-exporting workforce, early technology adoption, and English used as the default business language from day one. He also notes friction points, including state alcohol monopolies and diverging cloud policies between Sweden and Finland, before surveying large companies and startups applying AI, and closing with recommendations for startups, investors and politicians, including a call for a more ambitious, JFK-style AI vision.
Key takeaways
- Guttmann attributes Nordic AI strength partly to a personal-number system linking private and public data, including full healthcare records, across each country.
- He cites Klarna's use of hundreds of data points to predict bill-payment likelihood and Iceland's national DNA biobank as examples of high public trust in data sharing.
- He contrasts Sweden's reluctance to use non-EU cloud providers, which limits AI deployment, with Finland's broader adoption, including at Helsinki University Hospital covering a third of the population.
- He describes H&M's "Fountainhead" approach of democratizing AI access to hundreds of thousands of employees because it could not hire enough AI specialists.
- He argues European and Nordic AI strategies lack an ambitious, JFK-style moonshot vision and calls on politicians to take bigger risks to attract talent.
Detailed notes
Rankings and the Nordic starting point
Guttmann opens by noting he arrived without his luggage or laptop charger, so the talk would be delivered largely without slides. He references the Global AI Index, where Finland ranks 11th and Denmark 12th, with Sweden and Norway around 18th and 19th, measured on factors like talent, access and infrastructure readiness. He also cites per-capita unicorn rankings where Sweden trails only California, pointing to Spotify, King and Klarna, as well as Minecraft and Angry Birds as billion-dollar Nordic successes, and notes strong results on a global AI government-readiness index from Oxford, speculating that long winters may partly explain the region's engineering-driven innovation culture.
Infrastructure, data culture and the personal number
Guttmann highlights near-complete internet and mobile coverage across the Nordics, roughly 80% high-speed penetration even in rural areas, contrasting this with disruptions he experienced in Germany, and argues reliable connectivity is a basic requirement for AI applications such as self-driving cars. He points to each country's personal number system, linked through BankID or Norway's Altinn, which connects an individual's private and public services, including a full healthcare record, as a foundation for AI. He gives two examples: Klarna's use of hundreds of data points per individual to predict the likelihood someone will pay a bill, and a healthcare project he worked on that combined multiple quality registries to enable value-based reimbursement, tracking which treatments and hospitals produce which outcomes at what cost, work he says would not have been possible without the personal number. He also cites Iceland's population-wide DNA biobank, noting an app that lets people check genetic relatedness to a potential partner in bars.
Government support, talent and market structure
Guttmann describes Nordic government-backed structures such as Nordic Innovation Houses in Silicon Valley, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, which help startups land and grow abroad, and the Nordic Council of Ministers, which enables countries to collaborate at a scale a single small country could not achieve alone. He notes the region is engineering-heavy with comparatively less sales and business focus, reflected in companies like Ericsson and Nokia, but that the Nordics remain net exporters of AI and data science talent, similar to the rest of Europe. He points to early technology adoption, including Tesla's roughly one-third market share in Norway, and contrasts Nordic startups, which use English as their primary language from the outset because small home markets like Finland's five million people cannot support a global company alone, with German companies that often expand abroad still using German.
Monopolies and diverging cloud policies
Guttmann notes state alcohol monopolies in Sweden, Finland and Norway, joking that some call Sweden "more communist than North Korea" in this respect, while observing that centralized purchasing makes Sweden's state retailer, Systembolaget, buying wine for ten million people, the largest wine purchaser in the world at high quality and affordable prices. He also contrasts cloud policy: Sweden's public sector largely avoids non-EU cloud providers, citing Schrems-related legal concerns, forcing reliance on on-premises AI infrastructure, while Finland has taken American cloud providers further, including in a project covering roughly a third of Finland's population through Helsinki University Hospital, where he says far more AI technology could be implemented than was possible under Sweden's more restrictive approach.
Large companies and rising startups
Guttmann surveys established companies applying AI: H&M pursuing a horizontal "Fountainhead" approach to democratize AI access across hundreds of thousands of employees rather than relying solely on scarce AI specialists; Ericsson using AI extensively to make 4G, 5G and 6G networks effective; Novo Nordisk focusing on drug discovery, including growing investment in antibiotics, though he notes the antibiotic Halicin, which he says was only discoverable using deep learning, was developed by another, unnamed company rather than Novo Nordisk; and Equinor operating a fully autonomous oil platform in the Atlantic, alongside Norway's aim, as a country, to become oil-and-gas neutral. Among startups, he cites Silo AI from Finland, which he calls the largest European AI lab with about 150 AI and machine learning PhDs and 100% growth; a Danish company recognized by Brussels among Europe's top AI firms for AI that listens to emergency calls to improve response accuracy; Sidekick Health from Iceland, which recently raised about 55 million euros for patient consultation support; and Depict AI, founded by teenage CEO Oliver, who raised about 40 million dollars to provide Amazon-style recommendations for e-commerce sites.
Recommendations
Guttmann closes with recommendations for three audiences. Startups, wherever based, should ask whether their home market is really the best beachhead market given local culture and infrastructure, rather than assuming their home city is automatically the right starting point. Investors should understand the competitive landscape they are entering. Politicians, he argues, often treat national AI strategies, frequently drafted by consultancies rather than by politicians themselves, as a way to appear active without taking real positions; what is missing, in the Nordics and across Europe, is an ambitious, JFK-style moonshot vision for AI, comparable to committing to a moon landing before the technology existed, which he argues would attract talent and give AI efforts real purpose.
Quotes
What I'm missing in the entire European system, and that's the same also in the Nordic countries, is a strong vision, a JFK-like vision of how to use AI to do big things.
Christian Guttmann
Questions answered in this talk
Why is the personal number system important for AI in the Nordic countries?
According to Christian Guttmann at Rise of AI 2022, the personal number, linked through systems like BankID or Altinn, connects an individual's private and public services, including a complete healthcare record, into one accessible identity, which enabled projects such as cross-registry healthcare analytics and Klarna's payment-risk models.
Why does Sweden use less cloud infrastructure for AI than Finland?
Christian Guttmann explained at Rise of AI 2022 that Sweden's public sector largely avoids non-EU cloud providers due to Schrems-related legal concerns, relying instead on on-premises solutions, while Finland has adopted American cloud providers more broadly, including in a Helsinki University Hospital project covering about a third of Finland's population.
What recommendation does Christian Guttmann give to AI startups about choosing a home market?
At Rise of AI 2022, Guttmann advised startups to ask whether their home city or country is really the best beachhead market given local culture and infrastructure, rather than assuming the place they happen to be based is automatically the right starting point.