This report began as an internal input. In spring 2025, Digital Nation was helping Ukraine shape its national approach to AI, and before any drafting could begin, we needed a clear picture of what the rest of the world was actually doing – not the headlines, but the substance beneath them. What governance choices were countries making? Where was there genuine convergence, and where were the divergences that mattered? The result was a global mapping designed to ground Ukraine's strategy work in evidence rather than aspiration.
A year on, we decided to publish it for a wider audience. The questions it set out to answer have only grown more relevant, and colleagues working on AI strategy in other contexts might be seeking similar insights. Rather than keep the analysis in a drawer, we updated it. The revision is deliberately light: we have refreshed the most consequential developments of the past twelve months – among them the phased application of the EU AI Act, the maturing conversation around agentic AI – but the underlying structure, framing, and analytical choices remain those of the original.
The document should be read as a global mapping and analytical synthesis, not as an exhaustive catalogue of national AI policies. It focuses on selected countries, initiatives, and policy themes that offer useful lessons for governments designing or updating their own AI strategies. While Ukraine was the original reference point, many of the findings are relevant to a broader audience of policymakers, public-sector leaders, and international partners working on AI governance and adoption.
A word on what this report is, and is not. It is a landscape scan. Its purpose is to inform strategy formulation by outlining how AI governance is taking shape across jurisdictions, what patterns are emerging, and the tensions any government will need to navigate. It is not a playbook. It does not tell Ukraine, or anyone else, what to do. National AI strategies are shaped by very different institutional settings, economic structures, geopolitical realities, data foundations, and levels of public-sector maturity. The more useful question is not who is leading, but what choices they are making, why those choices matter, and what trade-offs they create.
In this spirit, the report is best read as a starting point for that thinking, not a conclusion to it.
Read the full report here
For readers who want all the details, the complete report is available as a downloadable asset below.
Digital Nation's work was funded by Estonian Centre for International Development (ESTDEV) - #FromThePeopleOfEstonia.