Almi and AI Sweden strengthen the tool box for business advisors

The collaboration between Almi and AI Sweden has focused on competence development for Almi's staff, with the overarching goal of scaling the knowledge of AI implementation that exists at AI Sweden nationally.

“Small and medium-sized companies account for approximately 60 percent of turnover and nearly two-thirds of jobs in the Swedish private sector. Through this collaboration, we are now giving thousands of companies better conditions to strengthen their competitiveness with the help of AI,” says Kalle Magnusson.

All employees at Almi have had the opportunity to improve their basic knowledge in AI, and ten employees have also participated in a specialized program where they gained insights from AI Sweden's collected experiences of successful AI implementation in businesses. In addition, ten of Almi's portfolio companies have been selected for an AI accelerator for growth companies, so-called scaleups.

Together with AI Act Ready, the project's design and material will contribute to the collection of resources and tools that AI Sweden, with funding from Tillväxtverket, is now developing for the entire innovation ecosystem.

“Later this autumn we are launching a collection of resources that will make it easier for the whole ecosystem of business support organisations to strengthen their AI competence. The insights from the Almi projects will be an important component, but to accelerate the benefits of AI in all small and medium-sized companies in Sweden, we need to make the journey together throughout the entire innovation ecosystem,” says Kalle Magnusson.

AI for Almi

A broad effort in knowledge sharing with all of Almi's over 500 employees. The main goal is to strengthen the organization's AI capability. The initial phase focused on AI's capabilities, with an emphasis on generative models, while the continuation focused on tools and methods that can support Almi's advisors in meetings with entrepreneurs.

AI Change Leaders

A smaller group of Almi employees have participated in a specialized program with the goal of building in-depth AI competence throughout Almi's national organization. The goal has been to improve the conditions for Almi's internal AI journey, but also to strengthen the organization's ability to support small and medium-sized companies in finding business value with AI. The ten employees have, among other things, been certified in the tools AI Opportunity Mapping and AI Readiness Assessment.

AI Accelerator for Scaleups

The ten companies that participated in the program first received a broad introduction to artificial intelligence, and in the second phase, developed a customized plan for how AI will create value in their own operations. In the program, which ran from March to September, the participating companies also gained access to selected parts of AI Sweden's partner network, which supported the companies in developing their AI projects.