What is the AI-on-demand platform? 

The AI-on-demand platform (AIOD) seeks to act as a resource to facilitate European research and innovation in AI. The objective of the platform is to support all solutions and tools that contribute to the ecosystem of excellence and the ecosystem of trust, which define the European Vision of AI     

The AIOD will mature to add AI assets and tools to be used by the broader community to upskill and transfer knowledge to innovation sectors. It will supply new services and a marketplace for non-experts, so that they can experiment and deploy AI solutions in their own workplaces.  

Background 

The first iteration of the AI-on-demand platform was developed under the leadership of the AI4EU project (ICT26-2019). This initial version of the platform put in place the basic functionalities of the platform and initiated many community efforts to further support the necessary administration and technical development. The initial investment by the European Commission was followed by the funding of six supporting projects (ICT49-2020), each of which is committed to building new innovative services for the platform.  

In addition, each of Europe's Network of AI Excellence Centres (ICT-48-2020) committed to further enrich the platform with the outputs of their activities.

With the completion of the initial AI4EU project at the end of 2021, the platform continues to be supported by the six ICT49 projects and enriched by the Networks of Excellence.  

What’s next? 

The next phase in the development of the AIOD, is the commencement of the €9m Coordination and Support Action project AI4Europe (CORDIS ID), which is tasked with further advancing the technical development of the platform and developing a supporting community to create additional value for the AI Research community.     

To further supporting the enhancement and development of the AIOD, the EC has requested that many newly funding Horizon Europe projects (approx. 40+ under Cluster 4) also engage strongly by developing new services and depositing results, and other content types on the platform.  

While the new CSA project and the supporting efforts of multiple supporting projects will focus on the research side of the equation, additional supports are also planned for the innovation side. 

In early 2022, under the DIGITIAL EUROPE programme, there was a dedicated call focused on putting in place a Preparatory Action that would be responsible to analyzing the features and requirements of the platform as they applied to innovation, industry, and the public sector. The project will set the foundation for a larger call (€27m) within DIGITIAL EUROPE that will be responsible for delivering compelling solutions for stakeholders in innovation. 

How to get involved? 

The AIOD platform is a community resource, and its success depends on the active engagement of the entire European AI Ecosystem. The platform is therefore open to all individuals or organizations interested in technically developing aspects of the platform, leading or contributing to different components, sharing outputs of research or simply sharing news updates or information on forthcoming events. There are multiple avenues to contribute and to guide and decide the direction and features of AIOD platform over the coming years.  

Many cross-project Working Groups are already in place to advance the AIOD, to engage with these, please send an email outlining your interest, or any question to contact.ai4europe@insight-centre.org and a representative of the AI4Europe project will redirect you to the appropriate ongoing activities.   

For further information, please join/follow our social media accounts at Twitter (@AI4EU) and/or LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/ai4eu/)