Digital Shapers 2026: Switzerland is looking for its AI beat

The setting was just right. The Alte Sihlpapierfabrik in Sihlcity, now Folium, provided the evening with an industrial resonance chamber that fits the digital present amazingly well. Where material was once processed, the future is now being negotiated. Around 80 of the 100 award-winning «Digital Shapers» were in attendance, along with a high-profile group of guests from the worlds of business, politics, research and technology. However, despite the gala format and prominent speakers, the real excitement was not in the ceremony, but in the undertone of the evening. Switzerland was not simply celebrating itself as an innovative country. It was audibly searching for its own pace for the AI age.

Kick-off with ambition

Marc Walder set this tone right at the beginning. For the Ringier CEO and initiator of digitalswitzerland, the evening was recognizably more than just a stage for a well-curated «who's who» of digital Switzerland. He spoke of eight editions as living proof of the country's innovative strength and pointed out that the work of digitalswitzerland ten years after it was founded «has never been more important than it is today». This did not sound like anniversary rhetoric, but rather a new urgency. After all, artificial intelligence is now changing practically every area covered by the ranking - from banking, telecommunications and media to research and administration.

Walder thus gave the evening a double movement. On the one hand, he praised the 100 heads as proof that Switzerland has the necessary minds, institutions and infrastructure. On the other hand, his choice of words also resonated with the desire to give the digitalswitzerland movement more visibility and direction again. Before the pandemic, this initiative had already reached a significant altitude. Now, in the age of AI, it seems to be looking for a new resonance chamber - and has found one with the «Digital Shapers».

The new basic rhythm

If Walder set the tone, Franziska Barmettler set the pace for the next steps. The CEO of digitalswitzerland spoke of «enormous momentum» and of new members knocking on the door because they felt that something was moving. However, she did not stop at the spirit of optimism. According to her message, great opportunities also require great effort, focus and cooperation.

What was particularly strong was how specific she was. When it came to the e-ID, she said something along the lines of: «The yes vote was just the beginning, now it's about working with partners in the administration and business to quickly create use cases that bring real benefits to the population. She was even clearer when it came to artificial intelligence. Switzerland, said Barmettler, is in an excellent starting position. But now the country needs to set the right course: AI governance, digital infrastructure, AI-enabled data and AI expertise. It is precisely these fields that digitalswitzerland also mentions in connection with the »AI Action Plan for Switzerland", which is intended to bundle public and private forces on a rolling action agenda.

This is where the evening suddenly became operational. An award became a work program. Brilliance became governance. Visibility became responsibility.

The Olympic moment

Barmettler delivered a sentence that sticks in the mind with a view to 2027, calling the Global AI Summit in Geneva the «Olympic moment for tech». It's a big phrase, but it hits the mark. After all, the summit will indeed give Switzerland an international stage. digitalswitzerland itself describes the hosting of the 2027 summit in Geneva as an opportunity to strengthen the country's role in the global AI dialog.

But an Olympic moment can also expose. A stage is only useful if you can show more than good intentions on it. This is precisely why Barmettler's point is important. It's not just about presenting Switzerland as a location for research and innovation, but also about synchronizing national players and involving the population more closely in this development. AI should not be seen as an elite project, but as a social issue for the future. The pace of this evening was therefore not only ambitious, but also inclusive.

The pacemakers of the evening

Marc Kowalsky, deputy editor-in-chief of «BILANZ» and project manager of «Digital Shapers», was also one of the influential voices. As a representative of the «AI Acrobats» category, he said that this is the category that is currently being talked about the most. At the same time, he gave a revealing insight into the density of the field: it would have been easy to select 100 «AI Acrobats» instead of just 10. This is more than just a nice subordinate clause. It shows how broadly the topic of AI has become established in Switzerland - and how much the selection had to be condensed in order to come up with ten names.

Christine Antlanger-Winter from Google Switzerland gave the evening a technical grounding. When she introduced the «Cloud Riders», she described the cloud as the basis for the age of AI, which is now coming into full bloom. That was an important reality check. AI is often discussed in almost magical terms at the moment. Antlanger-Winter reminded us that infrastructure lies beneath every AI application: Computing power, platforms, scalable systems and reliable data streams. So anyone talking about AI must also talk about the cloud - and the hard architecture behind the big promise.

Allen Cao, the new CEO of Huawei Switzerland, set a different but equally important tone. His key sentence was: "Technology alone does not change the world. It is people who use innovations, translate them into solutions and make them effective for society and the economy. For a representative of a global infrastructure company, this was remarkably restrained - and therefore credible. His role that evening was not that of the great disruptor, but that of the enabler. This also suits Switzerland: less pathos of the platform, more emphasis on cooperation.

Between the baton and crash barriers

Federal Chancellor Viktor Rossi brought a different tone to the evening: less euphoria, more state sobriety. And that was good for the overall picture. Rossi did not speak of AI as a promise of salvation, but of benefits, trust and responsibility. The decisive factor is whether this technology creates real added value for the economy and society. AI must not just simulate efficiency gains or impress as a gimmick, but must solve concrete problems.

His link to social acceptance was particularly important. According to Rossi's implicit thesis, people support AI where the benefits are visible. Translations are one such example. Diffuse or difficult-to-explain applications, on the other hand, generate skepticism. This is a key point for Switzerland: if you want trust here, you have to deliver relevance. Less fog, more proof. Less buzzword, more utility.

Rossi's performance thus brought the necessary political grounding to an evening that could otherwise have easily become lost in location poetry. He set guard rails without stepping on the brakes. This is precisely why his contribution was important.

Not a spectacle, but precision

Perhaps the strongest strategic statement of the evening was delivered by Christoph Aeschlimann. The Swisscom CEO said that Switzerland does not need to copy Silicon Valley. It does not need spectacle, but substance. This thought sums up almost everything that resonated between the lines that evening.

Aeschlimann painted a picture of a Switzerland that can play a relevant role in the global AI landscape even without its own hyperscalers or tech giants. Not through size, but through culture, infrastructure, trust, stability and judgment. He argued that in a world of agentic AI, the ability to set goals intelligently, create new ideas and take responsibility will be less important in the future than simply completing tasks. This is a strong counter-model to the mere race for computing power.

This is particularly plausible for Switzerland. Its role is likely to lie less in being the loudest and more in developing trustworthy systems for critical areas: Health, finance, energy, networks, data rooms. Aeschlimann thus gave the evening not only an economic, but almost civilizational framework.

Switzerland's solos

And then, of course, there were the 100 «Digital Shapers» themselves. They did not form a choir in unison, but rather an ensemble of solos. This was precisely their strength. The ten categories made it clear that digital Switzerland does not consist of a single scene or discipline. AI was prominent, yes. But robotics, cloud, cybersecurity, energy, fintech, health tech, quantum, mentoring and governance stood side by side on an equal footing.

It is precisely this breadth that makes the format relevant. It shows that digital transformation is never just a question of models, chips or apps. It arises from the interplay between researchers, infrastructure builders, founders, security experts, investors, policy makers and translators between all these worlds. Switzerland does not appear here as a monolithic tech location, but as a finely balanced system of different forces.

The real test

As strong as the ensemble was, it also became clear that the real test is only now beginning. According to WIPO 2025, Switzerland is the most innovative country in the world for the 15th time in a row. This is impressive, but also dangerously convenient. Rankings are not yet an operating system. Excellence is not yet a broad impact. And good minds alone do not guarantee the cultural anchoring of digital in the country.

This is precisely why the evening was more than just an award ceremony. There was a common task between the voices: Switzerland must translate its AI opportunity into concrete applications, sustainable guidelines and socially compatible practice. It needs more use cases, more courageous implementation, more digital expertise and more anchoring beyond the well-known lighthouses. ETH, Google and OpenAI in Switzerland are important. But they are not enough. Only when digital becomes the fuel of a broader economic and social development will this narrative really take on substance.

Final with an open outcome

So what remains of this evening at the Folium? Certainly not just a group picture of 100 names. Rather the impression of a Switzerland that has not yet finally found its AI beat, but is clearly searching for it. Marc Walder kicked things off. Franziska Barmettler the basic rhythm. Marc Kowalsky, Christine Antlanger-Winter and Alan Cao provided important contributions. Viktor Rossi set the guard rails. Christoph Aeschlimann gave the whole thing precision. And the 100 Digital Shapers made it clear that there is no shortage of talent, ideas and creative drive in this country.

The open question now is whether this evening will become more than just resonance. Whether voices will become structures. Symbols into systems. From a celebratory snapshot to a resilient rhythm for Switzerland in the age of AI. This is exactly what we will have to continue talking about after this evening. And for an event like this, that is perhaps the best sign of all.