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INVENTED IN HUNGARY
AI STRATEGY: PREPARING HUNGARY TO TAKE A 21ST CENTURY LEAD As a result of the cooperation between the Ministry for Innovation and Technology and the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Coalition, which gathers more than 250 organizations and is run by the Digital Success Program, Hungary’s AI Strategy was launched recently. It foresees gross domestic product and SME efficiency to soar by 15% and 26%, respectively, within the next 10 years. Additional objectives are to offer society large-scale educational and awareness raising programs with the aim to adjust to AI transformation, help a for-profit approach take root in research processes, support responsible management of national data assets, and find effective responses to the challenges posed by automation. The Budapest Business Journal talked to Roland Jakab, head of the AI Coalition (and MD at Ericsson Hungary) about the details of the new plan. By Zsófia Végh BBJ: What is the importance of the adoption of the strategy from the viewpoint of the economy, the companies and the job market? Roland Jakab: The Hungarian economy must be prepared for the AI transformation, and that requires raising awareness among citizens and businesses alike. The labor market
will be altered to a great extent with up to 900,000 jobs to be affected by 2030, according to a recent PwC study. This means that both employees and employers need to do their own homework. Our package of measures aims to set up the educational and institutional framework that can accelerate the widespread adoption of AI-driven solutions. As a result, an AIready workforce and the large-scale use by SMEs of AI are set to create
better paying jobs, and boost overall competitiveness. BBJ: How will the strategy affect these areas in the next five-10 years? RJ: The secondary use of data will become commonplace, so regulated trade in corporate records will allow domestic businesses to profit from their own data sets as well as develop solutions based on third party records.
