Artificial Intelligence in the National Budget: Beyond Technology and Towards Value Creation
In this year’s national budget, artificial intelligence (AI) is given a clear and strategic role as a driver of productivity growth, competitiveness, and welfare. The government highlights AI’s potential to address major societal challenges and to increase efficiency across both private and public sectors.
International analyses referenced in the budget suggest that increased use of AI alone could raise productivity growth in advanced economies by up to one percentage point per year.
The budget links this development closely to research, innovation, and digital infrastructure. Through instruments such as the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway, and Skattefunn, the government aims to stimulate investment in technology development, while the National Digitalisation Strategy (2024–2030) is intended to strengthen data sharing, digital services, and the responsible use of new technologies.
It is however worth noting that the government’s approach still frames AI as a technology project, focused on development and implementation, rather than as a broader agenda for business transformation, value creation, and organisational renewal. To realise the potential of AI, we must look beyond the technology itself.
Productivity gains will not automatically translate into higher profitability or lasting competitiveness. The real value emerges when AI is integrated into a firm’s strategy, processes, and resources, when the technology amplifies what is already distinctive about the organisation, and creates new forms of interaction between data, people, and markets. AI should therefore be understood and led as a strategic and organisational project, not as an isolated technological initiative.
This requires leadership that bridges technology and business, organisations capable of learning and adaptation, and a culture that encourages experimentation and collaboration. The greatest gains will not come from the tools themselves, but from how they are used, how we organise, cooperate, and create new forms of value in interaction with technology.
This perspective is central to DIG, where research focuses on how people, organisations, and technologies evolve together, and how digital transformation can be managed to create long-term competitiveness and societal value. To fully capture these gains, Norway’s policy and funding system must also recognise the importance of allocating resources to such activities, ensuring that investments in technology are matched by investments in understanding how innovation translates into sustainable growth.