This needs to be on your AI roadmap by August 2026

Macro Matters 2026-Q2 | The crucial decisions you need to make now to be ready for the new AI standard

Article
Data Strategy

Elias Hassing

Principal Data Strategy Consultant

3 min

03 Apr 2026

Want to move faster with a strategic view on your data? Every quarter, Elias zooms in on the market developments that impact your data-driven organisation.

This article in a nutshell

By 2026, AI in the Netherlands and Europe will become more strategic, subject to stricter regulation and more energy-intensive. Due to the National AI Delta Plan, the AI Act, economic pressures, skills shortages, the rise of AI agents and new sustainability requirements, organisations must no longer view AI as isolated pilot projects, but as an integral part of their strategy.

If you want to move forward as a CxO, make sure you focus on the following this quarter: compliance in order, processes ready for automation, teams upskilled, and AI choices aligned with European infrastructure and energy impact.

In this Macro Matters, we highlight the six macro trends that are relevant right now and what they demand of leadership, investment and governance this quarter.

1. Politics

The Netherlands is focusing on AI sovereignty with the National AI Delta Plan

In March, the Dutch government presented the National AI Delta Plan, which contains more than fifty recommendations aimed at building up Europe’s own AI capacity and computing power and reducing dependence on American and Chinese providers. The plan links AI directly to strategic sectors such as semiconductors, logistics, healthcare and agriculture, and provides for a national awareness campaign and an AI Impact Institute to ensure societal safeguards.

At the same time, the EU AI Act is approaching the stage where most provisions will come into force from August 2026, whilst the European Commission will publish practical guidelines for risk-based AI applications in February 2026. For mid-market organisations, this means that AI strategy is no longer a ‘nice to have’, but is becoming an explicit part of industry and innovation policy.

So what? (board-level)

CxOs must explicitly link their AI roadmap to this new Dutch and European sovereignty policy. Prioritise use cases that keep strategic data in your own or a European cloud, start building towards AI Act compliance now, and position AI investments as a contribution to sectoral priorities to better align with future subsidies and partnerships.

Actions this quarter

Identify which current and planned AI initiatives align with the sector priorities set out in the Delta Plan, and assess the AI roadmap for compliance readiness by August 2026.

Read more (the sources below are written in Dutch)

2. Economic

Stable interest rates, moderate growth: scope for targeted AI investments

The ECB has kept its policy rate stable since early 2026 and expects inflation to move towards 2%, with projections of around 1.9% for 2026 and 1.8% for 2027. This eases pressure on financing costs and makes further interest rate cuts likely later in the year. For the Netherlands, ING expects moderate growth of around 1.3% in 2026, with persistent bottlenecks such as labour market tightness and grid congestion.

At the same time, recent sector analyses show that AI and automation are being deployed in the Netherlands precisely in this context to boost productivity and address shortages of labour and capacity. This is not the time for broad CAPEX expansion, but for focused investments with a clear business case.

So what? (board-level)

The current climate offers scope for selective acceleration: not a broad wave of investment, but targeted AI and automation projects with clear productivity and cost-saving cases, particularly in processes where staff are scarce or margins are under pressure.

Actions this quarter

Review the business case criteria for ongoing AI projects: calculate interest and energy costs, prioritise projects with a payback period of twelve to twenty-four months, and build in scenarios where cloud costs rise but labour costs increase further.

Read more (the sources below are written in Dutch)

3. Social

AI talent is in short supply, but Dutch companies are accelerating adoption through upskilling

In 2024, over 22.7% of Dutch companies were using AI technology, with large organisations employing 500 or more staff leading the way at 59.2%. The highest adoption rates were found in the information and communications sector (58%), specialist business services (39.8%) and financial services (37.4%). Companies

This is consistent with European analyses showing that the EU is lagging far behind its target of twenty million ICT specialists by 2030. The skills gap cannot be resolved through external recruitment alone. Organisations that attempt to do so risk purchasing technology that is not used effectively.

So what? (board-level)

CxOs must explicitly adopt a dual strategy this quarter: targeted recruitment for critical AI roles and systematic upskilling of existing staff in data and AI usage. HR roadmaps must be aligned with the AI project portfolio; otherwise, investment in technology will remain underutilised.

Actions this quarter

Use ongoing generative AI pilots as a learning opportunity for teams in the areas of prompting, quality control and process redesign, and set up an internal programme for AI power users.

Read more (the sources below are written in Dutch)

4. Technological

From hype to production: generative AI agents and the European cloud are coming of age

New surveys in Europe show that the adoption of generative AI by businesses will have almost doubled by 2025–2026, with major service providers and industrial players leading the way. The trend is now shifting towards ‘agentic’ applications: AI agents that carry out entire tasks and processes rather than simply handling individual prompts.

At the same time, European initiatives for proprietary AI infrastructure are gathering pace, such as the AI Gigafactory plan, which positions the Netherlands as a potential location for large-scale European AI data centres, and the emergence of smaller, specialised language models that can run more cost-effectively in European cloud environments. The real value lies not in the tools themselves, but in the redesign of work and processes around these new agent architectures.

So what? (board-level)

CxOs must stop ‘tool-shopping’ and determine which core processes are suitable for AI agents in the short term – such as customer contact, order processing and internal reporting – and what data and integration infrastructure is required for this. Make a conscious choice to use a European or hybrid cloud for sensitive workloads and establish clear guidelines on what agents are permitted to automate, including human-in-the-loop procedures and logging.

Actions for this quarter

Set up a small portfolio of agentic use cases with clear KPIs relating to turnaround time, error reduction and customer experience, and invest in the data and cloud infrastructure that will enable scaling.

Read more (the sources below are written in Dutch)

5. Legal

The AI Act and Data Act are approaching crucial deadlines: governance can no longer wait

The EU AI Act will come into force in phases: in February 2026, the European Commission will publish practical guidelines, and from August 2026, virtually all provisions will apply. Running in parallel are the EU Data Act, whose core provisions will apply from September 2025, and NIS2 obligations which

These three regulations have a direct impact on how organisations collect, share, store and use data for AI, and on how they structure cloud contracts and manage vendor lock-in. Without an integrated governance programme, AI initiatives will face delays and compliance risks in 2026–2027.

So what? (board-level)

Compliance is not just a checklist but a competitive advantage. Organisations that embed governance early on turn regulatory requirements into a reputational and procurement advantage. Renegotiate cloud contracts where necessary to secure data portability and exit options ahead of the Data Act deadlines in September 2026.

Actions this quarter

Launch an integrated data and AI governance programme: identify AI systems, classify use cases by risk level, establish policies for data quality and explainability, and ensure that security and compliance teams are involved in all new AI pilots.

Read more (the sources below are written in Dutch)

6. Environment

Stricter energy requirements for data centres are driving the adoption of green digitalisation solutions

The European Commission is preparing a Data Centre Energy Efficiency Package for Q1 2026, linked to a strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in the energy sector, with the aim of achieving climate-neutral data centres by 2030. This package sets out new requirements regarding energy efficiency, integration with the electricity grid, and transparency regarding energy consumption and cooling

In the Netherlands, the energy consumption of data centres is under the microscope, partly due to their role in grid congestion and the energy transition. At the same time, AI workloads are growing rapidly, further driving up the demand for computing power and, consequently, energy. The CO₂ and energy costs of AI are thus becoming a boardroom topic, even for organisations that do not own data centres themselves.

So what? (board-level)

Sustainability is no longer a separate ESG report, but an integral part of every AI roadmap. Cloud choices, infrastructure investments and supplier selection are assessed for their environmental footprint by investors, customers and regulators alike. Avoid fragmented pilot landscapes that lead to unexpectedly high energy and compliance costs.

Actions this quarter

Include the energy profile of AI solutions in business cases and ESG reports, opt for energy-efficient models and green data centres wherever possible, and optimise AI workloads to prevent unnecessary energy wastage.

Read more (the sources below are written in Dutch)

What does this mean for you this quarter?

These six developments make it clear that Q2 2026 calls for coherent decisions:

Political: The combination of the National AI Delta Plan and the AI Act makes AI sovereignty and compliance a key governance issue — decide now how your AI portfolio will align with European infrastructure and regulations.
Economic: A stable interest rate environment with moderate growth offers scope to selectively accelerate AI and automation projects with tangible productivity and cost impacts within six to twenty-four months.
Social: The shortage of experienced AI talent necessitates a proactive upskilling strategy and the organisation of AI power users within the business; otherwise, tools will remain structurally underutilised.
Technological: Generative AI agents and the European cloud are becoming production-ready; determine now which core processes will be the first to become ‘agentised’ and what data and integration infrastructure is required for this.
Legal: Deadlines for the AI Act, Data Act and NIS2 are approaching; without an integrated governance programme, AI initiatives will face delays and compliance risks in 2026–2027.
Environment: New energy requirements for data centres are bringing the CO₂ and energy costs of AI into focus; make green AI and energy efficiency part of cloud and model choices, as well as the ESG narrative.

The organisations that succeed are those that do not treat these trends in isolation, but bring them together under a single, clear data and AI strategy.

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This is an article by Elias Hassing

With a background in product management and over 15 years of experience leading international development teams, Elias helps organisations develop their data strategy. With his expertise in product development and experience as Head of Product at companies such as Coolgradient and Infinitas Learning, Elias guides digital transformations from strategy to execution.

Elias Hassing

Principal Data Strategy Consultantelias.hassing@digital-power.com

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This article in a nutshell

1. Politics

2. Economic

3. Social

4. Technological

5. Legal

6. Environment

What does this mean for you this quarter?

Ready to discover your data potential?

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