Lessons from Swedish industry leaders in AI and the green transition

Insights|September 30, 2025

Recently, we organized a delegation trip to Gothenburg in cooperation with the Helsinki Region Chamber of Commerce to strengthen cross-border business ties between Finland and Sweden. The journey brought together leaders and professionals from multiple industries, creating opportunities to share knowledge, explore collaboration, and see how Swedish companies approach growth and renewal. For Roschier, the initiative is about enabling new opportunities and to offer insights, connections and experiences that support leadership skills and a long-term growth mindset.

The first visit was to AstraZeneca BioVentureHub, where Pernilla Isberg, Alexander Kvist, and Carl Johan Nordmark explained how the company drives innovation in areas such as heart and respiratory diseases, cancer, vaccines and rare conditions. With more than 60 years in Gothenburg, AstraZeneca has built a culture of collaboration where open spaces and shared infrastructure foster exchange of ideas. They underlined the importance of finding and developing young talent for the future, alongside new ways of working with AI. From training their own large language models to setting ambitious goals like launching 21 new medicines by 2030, the company showed how science and technology go hand in hand with renewal.

At Saab, Veronica Lundstedt and Johan Karlhagen described how their sensor and radar businesses are experiencing strong global demand. Their products are applied in areas such as air and maritime surveillance, traffic management and border control, where advanced sensor systems provide situational awareness and safety. With a significant backlog of orders, Saab continues to expand in Gothenburg and adapt quickly to new security needs, ensuring reliable delivery of technologies that are critical for both defense and civilian use.

Mölnlycke, represented by Fredrik Wallefors and Oscar Rosengren, showed how their medical products improve hospital efficiency and patient safety. With a history of 175 years, Mölnlycke is an example of Swedish companies that endure while continuing to innovate for the future.

At GoCo Health Innovation City, Moa Dicksdotter introduced a community where life science companies work side by side in an environment built for openness, sustainability and collaboration. The area has grown into a true hub, not only for research and business but also for daily life. It has embraced biking and sustainable transport, added services such as an elderly care home, and created a mini city around its values. The vision is that innovation should not stop at the laboratory or office walls but extend into how people live, move and connect with one another.

The second day of the trip started with Jacob Andersson from GAIA giving a forward-looking perspective on artificial intelligence, discussing the rise of AI agents, organizational change and the importance of bold experimentation.

The visit to the Port of Gothenburg brought insights from Göran Eriksson, Anna Berggren, and Jacob Minnhagen. They explained how the port, older than the city itself, remains vital for Nordic trade and energy supply. With major investments and a strong rail network, the port is preparing for the fuels of the future while maintaining resilience in uncertain times.

The program concluded with industrial and energy companies. At SKF, Charlotte Niklasson and Lars Werner showed how AI and sustainability are shaping transformation across the business. At Preem, Anton Bichler and Henrik Rådberg described the gradual conversion of Sweden’s largest refinery from fossil-based to renewable fuels, aiming for 90 percent renewable production by 2035, while also piloting AI solutions to increase efficiency.

Across the visits, common themes stood out. Companies are balancing opportunities and challenges in AI, digitalization and the green transition. There is a growing need for collaboration, data sharing and new ways of working. Most of all, the Swedish business mindset was clear: a long-term vision combined with an ability to reinvent. From Mölnlycke’s 175 years of medtech leadership to SKF’s century-old adaptability and AstraZeneca’s AI-driven innovation, Swedish companies showed how to stay relevant across generations while preparing boldly for the future.