AI is already changing political tech. From automated voter outreach to disinformation monitoring, the next wave of civic engagement tools will be AI-driven. The problem is, the firms making the most money from AI right now aren’t AI labs, engineers, or mission-driven organisations—they’re the consulting firms advising on AI adoption at scale.

Europe is at a crossroads when it comes to digital sovereignty. For too long, the EU has relied on external tech infrastructure—80% of its digital ecosystem is dependent on foreign providers. The EuroStack report, commissioned by Bertelsmann Stiftung and authored by Francesca Bria, Fausto Gernone, and Paul Timmers, lays out a bold vision for change: a €300 billion investment in open-source infrastructure, AI, semiconductors, and cloud computing to build a truly European digital backbone.