Bulgaria Trailing behind in AI Development despite EU Financial Backing

Artificial intelligence is changing the world's economic and political landscapes, pushing every country to increase their AI investments. Bulgaria has a lot to catch up with its European peers on that front. According to research conducted by BGNES, only the Netherlands spends less on AI projects than Bulgaria, with Sofia allocating a mere 0.62% of its digitalization funds to this game-changing technology.

The assertion that AI will transform the global economy is less a prediction than a fact. By 2030, the world's fastest-growing technology could contribute around €11 trillion to the global economy. New jobs are already being created around Europe, from prompt engineers ensuring smooth communication between humans and AI-powered systems to artificial intelligence engineers training AI algorithms. As reported by Euronews, AI engineers rank among the top-growing professions in Switzerland and Italy. The latter leads by example with a substantial €42 billion apportioned to digital growth.

By contrast, Sofia is lagging behind. Despite being allocated €10.18 million by the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) instrument, a €117 billion recovery fund aiming to build a more resilient and digital future across European member states, Bulgaria does not yet align with European objectives - perhaps for empirical reasons more than lack of ambition. Many challenges come in the way of the AI strategy published by the Bulgarian Government in 2020.

These obstacles are due to a combination of factors, ranging from regulatory barriers to trust issues. Arguably, the country's small market size hinders its attractiveness. Meanwhile, Bulgaria's massive outbound migration has caused a shortage of digital skills across domestic companies. Long the world's fastest-shrinking...