Prime 10 European IT tales of 2025
On this yr’s assessment of Laptop Weekly’s protection of IT tales in continental Europe, we function developments within the Netherlands, France, Norway, Sweden and Spain.
It won’t come as a shock that synthetic intelligence (AI) options prominently on this assessment, with no a part of enterprise IT escaping its grip. The know-how is aware of no boundaries within the enterprise sector, with the nations of Europe battling for AI funding whereas grappling with the challenges AI brings.
Additionally that includes considerably are articles trying on the unending combat in opposition to cyber crime, with among the newest developments from the Netherlands the place researchers are increasing data of cyber safety.
We additionally checked out how the most recent know-how is altering the lives of residents in Europe, from how they journey to work to how they determine to vote on the subsequent election.
A “discriminatory” synthetic intelligence mannequin utilized by Sweden’s social safety company to flag individuals for profit fraud investigations was suspended this yr, following an intervention by the nation’s Information Safety Authority.
Beginning in June 2025, IMY’s involvement was prompted after a joint investigation from Lighthouse Stories and Svenska Dagbladet revealed in November 2024 {that a} machine studying system being utilized by Försäkringskassan, the Swedish Social Insurance coverage Company, was disproportionally and wrongly flagging sure teams for additional investigation over social advantages fraud.
This included ladies, people with “international” backgrounds, low-income earners and folks with out college levels.
A flight of synthetic intelligence corporations from Norway is being accelerated by concern of the federal government’s determination to undertake controversial European AI legal guidelines.
Whereas stress mounts on the European Fee to halt stringent guidelines governing “high-risk” AI programs, Norway is continuing with plans to implement the AI legal guidelines in a rush.
The federal government declared its function to maintain Norway’s statute suitable with European Union (EU) legislation, a precept of the EEA settlement by which firms from Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein have entry to the European single market.
French president Emmanuel Macron needs Europe to take a number one function within the growth of AI.
He welcomed a partnership between French AI startup Mistral AI and AI chip large Nvidia, which is able to see Mistral AI create a cloud platform, dubbed Mistral Compute. It goals to rival these from different cloud suppliers resembling Amazon Internet Providers and Microsoft Azure, presenting a European choice for the primary time.
Macron mentioned it will create a historic shift, calling it “our combat for sovereignty, for strategic autonomy”.
Banco Santander will introduce a compulsory AI coaching programme for all its employees in 2026, as a part of its plan to make the know-how a part of its DNA.
The Spanish financial institution is accelerating its use of AI after it made greater than €200m in price financial savings final yr.
In addition to the necessary AI coaching plan for all staff, which is able to start subsequent yr and consists of instructing accountable AI use, the financial institution is providing coaching to its growth, advertising and marketing and frontline employees, together with by workshops and hackathons.
Eindhoven College of Expertise demonstrated the uncomfortable fact that even organisations that tick all of the cyber safety packing containers can fall sufferer to stylish assaults when attackers gained enterprise-level entry to its community and started making ready what forensic investigators later concluded would have been a devastating ransomware assault.
The college’s response was dramatic: it disconnected all 14,000 college students and 4,700 employees from the web for a whole week. That determination, taken inside hours of detecting the breach, prevented what might have been months of crippled operations and hundreds of thousands in ransom calls for.
A coalition of nations has supplied Ukraine with greater than €1.3bn of telecommunications, data know-how and different high-tech gear since Russia started the deadliest battle in Europe because the Second World Struggle.
Though the quantity could also be small in contrast with Ukraine’s navy finances, the gear, supplied with the help of western governments and firms, has been important to permit Ukraine’s authorities and establishments to proceed functioning beneath Russian assault.
The race between deepfake creators and detectors has entered a brand new part, with researchers from the Netherlands revealing tech that reads the human heartbeat by video evaluation.
Whereas AI generates more and more convincing deepfake movies, forensic researchers are responding by constructing an ever-expanding toolkit of detection strategies.
Detecting Deepfakes requires a number of approaches working in live performance, with no single technique offering definitive proof.
Germany’s healthcare system has begun a programme that goals to enhance communication and decision-making by changing faxes, cellphone calls and voicemails with encrypted messaging providers.
The mission, which is being overseen by Germany’s Nationwide Digital Well being Company, Gematik, guarantees a extremely safe various to WhatsApp that may permit sufferers, healthcare professionals and insurance coverage firms to coordinate medical therapy.
Preliminary trials have proven that the service has led to vital time financial savings for medical employees by releasing them from making repeated cellphone calls.
Since Might 2022, a semi-autonomous bus, working with one of many highest ranges of autonomy globally, has been providing public transportation providers within the coastal municipality of Stavanger. The mission is demonstrating how autonomous automobiles can efficiently function in complicated city environments.
In contrast to easier autonomous automobile trials that follow managed or remoted environments, Stavanger’s autonomous bus drives by the town centre, weaving by roundabouts, slim streets and a mixture of pedestrians, cyclists and different automobiles. It’s a real-world proving floor for autonomous mobility, exhibiting that the know-how can function successfully in on a regular basis visitors eventualities.
Because the mud settled on a traditionally close-run Dutch election, a outstanding pattern emerged. Whereas celebration leaders have been targeted on conventional marketing campaign points, voters used their ballots to ship a transparent message: digital competence in Parliament is not a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. This grassroots motion, spurred on by initiatives resembling NerdVote, efficiently propelled tech-savvy candidates into Parliament, regardless of their low positions on the celebration lists.
Whereas the centrist-liberal D66 celebration and Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV have been locked in a useless warmth for first place, the actual story for the tech sector occurred additional down the poll.
