Canton of Zurich's Innovation Sandbox for AI — Two Phases, Ten Real-World Projects Tested Under Regulatory Guidance

The Innovation Sandbox for AI of the Canton of Zurich's Office for Economic Development (Amt für Wirtschaft) launched on 16 March 2022 with partners including the ETH AI Center, the University of Zurich's Center for Information Technology, Society and Law, swissICT and ZHAW, backed by the Metropolitan Region of Zurich association. It offers start-ups, SMEs, corporations, NGOs, research institutions and public bodies regulatory guidance and access to public data sources; technical consulting and clinical studies are excluded.
Phase I (2022-2024) received 21 proposals and completed 5 projects (autonomous-systems guidelines, automated handwriting correction in education, drone infrastructure inspection, machine translation for administration, privacy-by-design smart parking). Phase II (2024-2026) received 24 submissions and completed 5 projects (AI pre-checks of building permits for solar, heat pumps and chargers; sensor-based bridge monitoring; diabetic-retinopathy screening; inspection robots under the AI Act, Machinery Regulation, Cyber Resilience Act and Data Act; AI medical documentation), with a final report in May 2026 and individual reports published between November 2025 and April 2026.
Evidence and limits: the canton reports reduced regulatory uncertainty and best practices drawn from real use cases, and the programme won the Digital Economy Award 2025 (Digital Excellence – GOV & NPO). The sources, however, give no quantified outcome data (time saved, adoption, costs), the cohorts are small (about one in four applicants admitted), and the sandbox provides guidance rather than legal exemptions.

Read the full analysis: https://www.zh.ch/en/wirtschaft-arbeit/wirtschaftsstandort/innovation-sandbox.html