Responsible, sovereign, resilient. Three concepts that play a role at every level of AI, from infrastructure to technology and application. That was the message from Chairman Willem Jonker at the opening of the Dutch AI Congress 2026: Impact with AI, the Fair Tech Way.
Build what matters
That was exactly the theme that came up throughout the day, in the keynotes, the panels, and the breakout sessions. Here are a few moments that illustrate this well: Daniel Gebler from Picnic really struck a chord. “Build what matters,” he emphasized. Focus on what adds value for the end user of the technology. His caveat: there must be room to build. “I think it’s very important that we all focus even more on the builders and not just on the ideas. Everyone has a lot of ideas in their LinkedIn feed… But what really matters is that we are investing in builders and that we are building.”
Freedom of choice
Sovereignty means having a choice. It doesn’t mean wanting to do everything yourself, but it does mean being able to choose. With GPT-NL, Saskia Lensink demonstrated on stage that it is indeed possible: building a functional language model with limited resources that delivers real-world value. “Autonomy is about freedom of choice. That doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself. But for some things, it is important to have sovereign solutions—solutions over which you have complete control.”
All of us in the lead
The urgency is real. Mietta Groeneveld, speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, delivered a message that really stuck: AI is making a difference every day in Ukraine, and the threat is here too. “My question to you today: apply the same sense of urgency to all the IT systems you work with as you do to your physical safety. Defense defends what is dear to us, but it is not in the lead. That is up to all of us.”
We won't let it get to us
Together. That was perhaps the most important word of the day. State Secretary Willemijn Aerdts emphasized that the Netherlands is small but a major player in specific sectors, and that partnerships like AIC4NL are indispensable: AI with a European approach, while upholding our values. “We’re letting ourselves be accelerated, but we’re not letting it drive us crazy. We’re doing it our own way—by building and applying responsible AI.”
AI in Practice
During the breakout sessions, several speakers demonstrated how AI is already adding value across various sectors. In the session on agriculture, we saw how AI detects diseases in potatoes using image recognition. And in greenhouses, drones collect data that models use to predict growth and detect plant diseases early on, long before the naked eye can spot them.
In “AI in Education: Opportunities, Choices, and Limits,” it became clear what automated grading can achieve: a reduction of 17 million hours of work, thereby alleviating the teacher shortage. However, this is high-risk AI and requires compliance with the AI Act. The key takeaway: start small, be transparent, and develop a national approach before technology overtakes pedagogy.
The session titled “AI Is Changing the Way We Work” taught us that work, learning, and experimentation are becoming increasingly intertwined; organizational structure is becoming just as important as technology; and making education more flexible is essential.
Finally, the breakout session: “Access to the Dutch AI Factory.” The computing facility will open in Groningen in just over a year, but companies and researchers can already request free computing time from AI factories elsewhere in Europe.
Innovation Plaza
We asked how AI Fair Tech is experienced in practice at the Innovation Plaza: an accessible space where students, startups, and organizations demonstrated their AI applications.
More than just sun and wind
According to Piet-Jan Bloem of AIMZ, sustainable AI is all about efficiency. AIMZ adds a smart layer to existing control systems in buildings to optimize energy consumption without having to replace everything. “On the one hand, an enormous amount of energy is still being wasted. In the built environment alone, AI can help us save more energy than we generate from solar and wind power. We always prioritize efficiency: what does it yield, and what does it cost in terms of energy? The best models are often the ones that require the least computing power.”
Beyond the pilot
AI often gets off the ground. But it rarely goes very far. Martijn Bekking of Platform AI & Government coordinates efforts to expand the use of successful applications. “There’s a lot happening with AI, but it often gets stuck at the pilot stage. The real challenge is scaling up. And we always look at three things: is it technically sound, is it legally sound, is it ethically sound? And does it add value in practice? That makes it more complex than in many other sectors, but also necessary.”
In addition to safety
Innovation is allowed everywhere. Huub Janssen, an inspector with the National Inspectorate for Digital Infrastructure, draws a line. “Companies can compete on anything except security. Technology changes, but that principle remains. If you don’t view rules as restrictions, but as a way of defining what we collectively consider safe, you’ve already come a long way. At their core, these are the same things you would want for yourself or your family.”
The conference demonstrated that AI Fair Tech is already firmly established as a working method in many areas. Responsible, autonomous, resilient. At every level. We will continue to build on this together.
