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Digital change is “critical,” and artificial intelligence (AI) will be key to this for Germany’s future, the country’s minister for digital transformation and government modernisation, Karsten Wildberger, told Euronews Next.
World leaders and technology experts are meeting in Dubai for the World Governments Summit, where discussions on technology are placing artificial intelligence and digitalisation at the centre of the agenda.
Karsten said Germany is pushing ahead with efforts to modernise government services while expanding AI use.
“We are embracing it at full speed,” said Wildberger.
“I would say AI is actually the next technology that we can use to leapfrog, and that we’re doing that. So we’re applying AI at scale in the government, and so we want to accelerate this”.
Despite this progress, he said more work is needed to make rules and laws more “innovation-friendly”.
“We’ve taken the first steps, but I think I would like us to do much more of that,” said Wildberger.
His comments come as Germany opened an underground AI factory in Munich this week, which aims to equip the country with its own sovereign AI industry.
He stressed that Germany has strong advantages, including research, industry expertise, and access to data, which is the backbone of AI.
“First, we have fantastic research, also in AI, and research institutes also in Germany, and that’s something we’re leveraging,” said Wildberger.
“Secondly, we’ve got fantastic industries with lots of domain expertise and lots of data. How do we use this also in the AI age?”
Germany set a new record in 2025 with 3,568 newly founded startups, a 29 percent increase from 2024, with more than a quarter of all new startups using AI as a core part of their business model, according to German Trade and Invest, the economic development agency owned by the federal government of Germany.
“There’s a lot of innovation from the ground, and we need more of that,” he said.
Video editor • Roselyne Min