Artificial intelligence is no longer a topic of the future, but increasingly a competitive factor. On February 26, the Innovation Forum 2026 took place at Switzerland Innovation Park East with over 100 participants. The focus was on the question of how artificial intelligence (AI) is having an impact in practice: as a building block for value creation, as a driver for more efficient processes and as a change in collaboration between people, data and technology.
Marc Holitscher, National Technology Officer at Microsoft Switzerland, categorized the current development as a strategic location issue: “Artificial intelligence is a tool that enables teams to work more efficiently and make better decisions.” The performance of AI has increased significantly, while the costs per application have fallen considerably – a development that is further accelerating its widespread use.
The fact that AI has arrived in corporate practice in Eastern Switzerland was demonstrated in the breakout sessions with concrete application examples from various industries. Companies reported on applications in process automation, data-based decisions and the optimization of customer interactions. Karl Müller and Claudio Minder put it in a nutshell: “It used to be brave to use AI – today it’s brave to work without it.”
Beat Kronenberg, CEO of FC St.Gallen, showed that data-based approaches are also effective in an environment rich in tradition. Added value is created, for example, in visitor management, in the analysis of fan needs and in the evaluation of performance and player data. His conclusion: innovation and tradition complement each other when technology is used to support people and organizations.
