A national AI strategy is a government document that sets out how a country plans to develop and govern artificial intelligence — covering research investment, talent development, regulatory approach, and ethical standards. Canada published the world’s first in 2017. By 2025, more than 60 countries had followed, and the differences between their approaches reveal as much as the common elements.

What a national AI strategy typically includes

Most strategies address the same set of questions:

  • Investment: How much public funding goes to AI research, computing infrastructure, and data systems?
  • Talent: How does the country train researchers, retrain workers, and attract international expertise?
  • Regulation: What rules apply to AI systems — comprehensive, risk-based, or sector-specific?
  • Research: Which problems get priority — fundamental science, applied use cases, or AI safety and ethics?
  • International alignment: Does the strategy align with trading partners, international bodies, or frameworks like the EU AI Act?

A strategy is distinct from AI legislation. A strategy is a planning document; legislation creates binding legal obligations. Many countries publish a strategy first and develop specific regulations later, as their understanding of the technology — and its risks — matures.

How countries approach AI strategy differently

Three broad models have emerged among the major economies:

Regulation-first (European Union): The EU AI Act, adopted in 2024, is the world’s first comprehensive binding legal framework for AI. It classifies AI systems by risk level and sets requirements before deployment — the most ambitious governance approach to date.

Investment-first (Singapore, South Korea): Some countries prioritize building national capability before scaling governance. Singapore committed over S$1 billion to AI research and talent between 2025 and 2030, built 70 AI Centres of Excellence, and developed its own open-source language models before introducing binding rules.

Sector-by-sector (United States, United Kingdom): Some governments delegate AI oversight to existing sector regulators — health, finance, transport — rather than creating a single AI law. The US relies on voluntary frameworks like the NIST AI Risk Management Framework alongside sector-specific enforcement.

No single approach has proven superior. Countries choose based on their regulatory tradition, economic priorities, and proximity to binding frameworks like the EU’s.

Why it matters for Georgia

Georgia committed USD 18.4 million to AI research in its 2026 State Budget — covering a planned AI research and competence centre, infrastructure, and talent development for the period 2026–2029. The investment follows a governance roadmap developed by UNESCO specifically for Georgia, based on the organisation’s Readiness Assessment Methodology.

The roadmap proposes four phases: defining a national AI vision; translating that vision into a concrete strategy with non-binding standards; building governance institutions informed by real experience; and eventually developing binding regulation with accountability mechanisms. The core principle is that regulation should reflect the maturity of a governance system rather than precede it.

Georgia is also an EU candidate country, which shapes the regulatory direction. UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of AI — adopted in November 2021 by all 193 UNESCO member states, the first global standard of its kind — serves as the ethical reference point alongside EU practices.

The underlying challenge is significant: in 2024, Georgia produced 1.1 AI research publications per million inhabitants, compared to an EU average of 29.8. The strategy aims to close that gap by building research capacity and computing infrastructure over the next four years.

In the news

For detailed coverage of Georgia’s AI investment commitment and the UNESCO governance roadmap, see our report Georgia Dedicates $18.4M to AI Research as UNESCO Maps Governance Roadmap.

FAQ

What is the difference between a national AI strategy and AI regulation?
A strategy is a planning document — it sets goals, allocates resources, and defines priorities. A regulation is a legal framework with binding rules. Many countries publish a strategy first, then develop specific regulations as the technology and its governance mature.

Does Georgia have an AI law?
As of mid-2025, Georgia has no dedicated AI legislation or regulatory authority. UNESCO’s roadmap recommends building governance capacity first, then moving toward binding rules in later phases as institutions and expertise develop.

What is the UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI?
It is the first global standard on AI ethics, adopted in November 2021 by all 193 UNESCO member states. It covers human rights, transparency, fairness, human oversight, and environmental sustainability, and provides implementation tools — including a readiness assessment and an ethical impact assessment — to help governments act on it.

Why do countries need a national AI strategy?
AI development requires coordinated decisions across research funding, education policy, regulatory design, and international cooperation. Without a strategy, these decisions are made in isolation or not at all. A published strategy also signals to researchers, companies, and trading partners where the country is heading — which affects investment and talent flows.

Sources: UNESCO Readiness Assessment and Governance Roadmap for Georgia · UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI (2021) · OECD AI Policy Observatory