Apply AI Strategy

The Apply AI Strategy serves as the European Union’s main sectoral framework for Artificial Intelligence, marking a significant step toward establishing the EU as a leading “AI Continent.”

Its goal is to strengthen Europe’s technological sovereignty and boost the competitiveness of key industries by driving the adoption of AI technologies, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Strategy promotes an “AI-first” approach, encouraging organisations to consider AI-based solutions in their strategic and policy decisions, while carefully weighing the benefits and risks. It also advocates a “buy European” principle, particularly within the public sector, and highlights the importance of open-source AI solutions.

Complementing the AI Continent Action Plan, the Apply AI Strategy sets out concrete actions through three main pillars:

• Sectoral flagships – Targeted initiatives to accelerate AI adoption across ten key sectors and the public sector, including healthcare, transport, energy, manufacturing, agri-food, defence, and the creative industries.
• Support measures – Efforts to enhance Europe’s technological independence by addressing cross-cutting challenges in AI development and uptake. This includes strengthening European Digital Innovation Hubs, transforming them into AI Experience Centres, and expanding access to AI Factories, Gigafactories, Testing and Experimentation Facilities, and regulatory sandboxes. The Strategy also emphasises the need for an AI-skilled workforce.
• New governance system – The creation of the Apply AI Alliance, a coordination platform uniting AI providers, industry, academia, and the public sector to ensure that policy actions reflect real-world needs. The connected AI Observatory will monitor AI trends and assess their impact across different sectors.

The strategy can be found here: EUR-Lex – 52025DC0723 – EN – EUR-Lex