OpenAI and Allied for Startups today announced the release of the Hacktivate AI report(opens in a new window)—a collection of 20 ideas to accelerate broad-based AI adoption in Europe and boost the bloc’s competitiveness. The release comes just days before the European Commission is expected to unveil its Apply AI Strategy, a plan to encourage the real use of AI across business and the public sector.
There is already significant demand for OpenAI technology in Europe with EU Member States ranking amongst our top markets globally for subscribers, API developers and business customers. Every day, people, developers, institutions, start-ups and leading enterprises are using OpenAI’s tools—and primarily, our freely available tools—to create economic opportunities for themselves and others throughout the continent, from speeding up the development of life-saving medical treatments with Sanofi(opens in a new window), to building a thriving European start-up ecosystem with a new generation of AI-fueled companies like Parloa and Pigment.
We launched Hacktivate AI as a first-of-its-kind policy hackathon to build on the momentum of adoption and accelerate wider uptake. Last week in Brussels, 65 participants—including representatives from EU institutions and national governments, large enterprises, SMEs, startups, economists, and AI specialists—came together to design real, workable ideas to help Europe lead in AI.
The report compiles 20 ideas developed during the hackathon, from helping people learn new skills to thrive, to making it easier for every sector to use AI, and cutting red tape so Europe’s single market can really benefit.
The ideas include the introduction of an Individual AI Learning Account to empower individuals on their professional journey (Proposal 1), the creation of an AI Champions Network to encourage AI adoption by SMEs (Proposal 3), or shared resources for the public sector through a European GovAI Hub (Proposal 12). A recurring theme across many proposals is simplification, including a call for Relentless Harmonisation (Proposal 15) to advance the Digital Single Market.
Martin Signoux, EU AI Policy Lead at OpenAI, said, “Hacktivate AI brought together the energy of Europe’s leading businesses, civil society, and public institutions with the goal to close the gap between the bloc’s AI ambition and reality. It’s clear that achieving broad-based adoption will require meaningful interventions that help Europe’s businesses and organisations put AI to work in all walks of life. We hope that the EU’s Apply AI Strategy will deliver on the same goal and translate Europe’s ambition into concrete action.”
The report builds on OpenAI’s broader work in Europe, from the EU Economic Blueprint to our endorsement of the General-Purpose AI Code of Practice earlier this year. It reflects the growing belief that Europe must double down on AI adoption by supporting innovators, builders, and entrepreneurs—an urgency echoed by Mario Draghi in the first anniversary of his report on European competitiveness.
Separate research(opens in a new window) by OpenAI about ChatGPT usage at work shows that while AI adoption is accelerating, it remains uneven—particularly between sectors that are already digitally mature and those still adapting. IT and finance lead the way, followed by manufacturing which points to a broader digital transformation but other industries lag behind. These findings underline the importance of targeted interventions to help organisations from across the economy make AI part of their daily work.
Meanwhile, through initiatives like OpenAI Academy, which has already supported over 2 million people with free AI learning resources, we are investing in making AI skills more accessible. We are also working with governments and partners—from Germany to Greece—to boost AI adoption in the public sector, education, and beyond.
Hacktivate AI is our latest step on this journey. Over the coming months and years, we will continue to work with public and private partners to make AI a collective European success story and source of prosperity and progress for the continent.
