Geneva, September 26, 2025

Executive Conference Report

Switzerland’s Digital & Data Turning Point

Moderator — Ernesto Izquierdo
Speakers — Juliane Schröter (University of Geneva), Sami Kanaan (former Mayor of Geneva), Hannes Gassert (CHplusplus / Liip)

The day opened with a call for digital sovereignty grounded in civic trust and education.
Juliane Schröter urged universities to move “from research to responsibility,” while Sami Kanaan argued that “digital transformation must serve democracy before productivity.”
Hannes Gassert called for a “Swiss civic stack”—open-source infrastructure serving both public and private actors.
Together, they framed Geneva as a living lab for an ethical, multilingual, and federated model of AI governance.

Full track summary available in French and English.

Critical Usecases for Society — The Advisors & Transformers

Moderator — Mia Jafari
Panel — Barbara Cresti, Haider Alleg, Sam Bourton

Mia Jafari, introducing her forthcoming book “Hope in the Age of AI,” described three paths ahead:

1. Catastrophic AI (weaponization, techno-fascism),

2. Flourishing AI (health, ecology, inclusion),

3. Stagnant AI (nothing changes).
   She reminded the audience: “The story isn’t written yet; we are all shaping it as conscious creators.”

Barbara Cresti drew from her AWS experience: “AI must be introduced top-down with literacy, governance, and purpose. Without it, you lose trust and IP.”
She noted Switzerland’s 55 % workplace adoption of Gen AI—higher than Europe or the U.S.—but warned of misuse through personal accounts and a new “work-slope” of mistrust.

Haider Alleg traced AI’s echo of the social-media boom: “Boards oscillate between fear and FOMO.”
He cautioned that venture capital currently “funds deep tech over human tech,” risking inequity.
Yet he sees transformation in “liquid data” that can finally drive better decisions.

Sam Bourton, ex-QuantumBlack, was pragmatic: only 5 % of pilots reach production—“and that’s normal.”
He sees engineers now “prompting their agents,” heralding AI assistants for every role.
“We are in peak uncertainty,” he said, “but the arc of innovation remains positive.”

Mia Jafari closed: “The most innovative thing in the age of AI is still being who we are.”

Full track summary available in English.

Sovereignty & Swiss Startups — How Far?

Moderator — Alberto Giovanni Busetto
Panel — Jérôme Crettol (Diplotools), Géraud de Laval (Recarta), Alex Kummerman (SGDL), Yann Ranchère (Motley)

Alberto Busetto opened bluntly: “Sovereignty isn’t nostalgia; it’s architecture.”
He challenged the founders to define value for users, investors, and entrepreneurs.

• Jérôme Crettol (Diplotools) builds an “AI OS for diplomacy”—used by 30 foreign ministries—where data localization is non-negotiable.

• Géraud de Laval (Recarta) turns real-estate PDFs into structured data, developing a Swiss domain LLM with EPFL.

• Alex Kummerman (SGDL), whose robotics code still orbits Earth, unveiled the Logic of Space protocol for machine reasoning: “Frugal AI is sovereign AI.”

• Yann Ranchère (Motley), pragmatic: “Clients don’t buy ideology. They buy compliance.”

Busetto summarized: “Sovereign AI lies on a spectrum—from infrastructure control to open collaboration.”
He cited the Apertus Swiss LLM as emblematic: shared cost, collective leverage.
A live poll showed roughly one-third of founders plan production use within two years.

Fireside: Vibecoding

Sonya Pleshcheva (Bli Bli Dressing) & Raphaël Briner (Panoramai)
Sonya described winning an Adobe hackathon with her AI-powered handbag-valuation app.
“Vibecoding lets you build from a vibe, not a blank page.”
Briner predicted “70 % of future code will be generated under human supervision.”

Critical Infra for Society — The Visionaries

Moderator — Andrei Villarroel
Panel — David Galbraith (F2N), Philippe Van Caenegem (The Evident Project), Sal Matteis (Author, AI [r]ecursive)

Andrei Villarroel reframed infrastructure as “the hidden skeleton of civilization.”
The three speakers mapped the Intelligence Economy emerging from data, energy, and cognition.

David Galbraith:
“The internet monetized users; AI monetizes production networks—software writing software.”
He urged Europe to lead in clean compute, not regulation: “We have 90 % low-carbon energy. Build the data-centers here.”

Philippe Van Caenegem:
Compared AI’s substrate to Rome’s roads or Britain’s shipping lanes—a new cognitive grid.
“Robots will finance our pensions. The real question is redistribution.”
He sees hope in Europe’s ability to manage complex, long-term projects à la CERN.

Sal Matteis:
Introduced “Humanity OS”—a moral framework for tech.
“Our institutions are obsolete, not evil. They need redesign, not rage.”
He warned of political OS mismatch: short-term populism vs. long-term technology.
“Technocratic recalibration is how we restore trust.”

The session closed on consensus:

• Infrastructure ≠ hardware only — it’s education, energy, cognition.

• Institutions must be rebuilt for the Intelligence Age.

• Society 5 = planetary-centric wisdom, integrating human and ecological systems.
  Briner’s closing line: “Walk and Talk → Think and Build.”

Overarching Takeaways

• Hope and agency: replace dystopia with design.

• Sovereignty as pragmatism: control data, energy, and education.

• Trust as capital: literacy + governance = adoption.

• Europe’s edge: clean energy, cooperative institutions, and long-term thinking.

• Human authenticity: remains the most radical innovation.

Panoramai 2025 concluded with standing applause and a shared conviction:

“It will be long to wait for the next edition in September."