{"name":"Applied AI in Belgium — the record","description":"Every announced initiative, deployment, published result and regulation of applied AI on the record for Belgium, tagged by kind, industry, region and role, sourced and dated. A slice of the State of Applied AI record, maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI.","source":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/belgium","partOf":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/evidence.json","attribution":"Industrial Research Unit, Straits Institute for Applied AI","updated":"2026-10-29","facet":{"kind":"country","name":"Belgium","slug":"belgium","iso2":"BE","region":"Europe"},"nationalStrategy":{"name":"National Convergence Plan for the Development of Artificial Intelligence","year":2022},"counts":{"entries":34,"deployments":18,"evidenceImpact":2,"evidenceAdoption":4,"regulation":10,"industries":8,"countries":1,"linked":34},"entries":[{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"Belgium","role":"Sommelier","org":"Colruyt Group (Boir)","text":"Colruyt Group's drinks webshop Boir introduced Babette, an AI sommelier choosing from nearly 2,000 products by budget, occasion or taste. Customer service and sommeliers take tricky questions.","date":"2026-10-01","source":"https://press.colruytgroup.com/boir-launches-babette-the-ai-sommelier-helping-customers-find-the-right-bottle"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Belgian federal parliament","text":"Het Nieuwsblad put 491 recent Dutch-language written questions from MPs through the AI detector Pangram, rating 22.5% fully and 20.4% partly machine-written, a measure of AI in parliament. Ministers' replies scored 7.7% for some AI authorship, and a 2022 control set came out wholly human. The detector's accuracy behind these AI-drafted questions figures goes unassessed.","date":"2026-09-23","source":"https://www.lalibre.be/belgique/politique-belge/2026/09/23/les-deputes-utilisent-de-plus-en-plus-lia-pour-rediger-leurs-questions-au-gouvernement-federal-une-minorite-qui-grandit-rapidement-3SBU5BHMLJBKHPYLPLWANEX26U/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Federal Government of Belgium (Minister Vanessa Matz)","text":"Vanessa Matz, the federal modernisation minister, has handed a draft national AI strategy to cabinet colleagues and the federated entities. Belgium AI policy must now win over coalition partners and regions before this proposed national framework gets adopted.","date":"2026-09-16","source":"https://www.lalibre.be/economie/entreprises-startup/2026/09/16/alors-que-lia-est-au-centre-des-craintes-vanessa-matz-propose-un-plan-dattaque-a-ses-partenaires-ASDMA6CT6RHELLVREZPXDB6SCU/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"Belgium","role":"Checkout assistant","org":"Carrefour Belgium","text":"Two Waterloo sites, a hypermarket and a franchised Carrefour Market, mark Carrefour Belgium's rollout of AI shopping trolleys. Smart carts for grocery shopping, built from Instacart's Caper Cart, detect products on contact and weigh loose produce automatically.","date":"2026-09-10","source":"https://www.retaildetail.be/nl/news/food/carrefour-belgie-test-slimme-winkelkar-van-instacart/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","role":"Forest ranger","org":"Agency for Nature and Forests (Flanders)","text":"Flanders' Agency for Nature and Forests says it will put cameras over protected land whose artificial intelligence reads the picture and picks out a rising plume of smoke. Validation runs through 2026 in North Limburg and other representative sites, with live trials this autumn and a staged roll-out from 2027 giving reserves AI wildfire detection. Minister Jo Brouns was blunt: every minute counts once a blaze starts, and early fire detection is the best chance of containing it.","date":"2026-09-10","source":"https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/2311357/smart-camera-network-covering-flemish-nature-reserves-to-detect-wildfires-immediately"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","role":"Police officer","org":"Politie Gent","text":"Politie Gent's new AI chatbot in policing answers residents 24 hours a day on the force's site, following months of trials. It greets visitors as the Ghent force's assistant, handling routine queries so officers, per the force, gain more room for genuine face-to-face contact — part of a wider shift toward AI in law enforcement.","date":"2026-09-03","source":"https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/09/03/gent-politie-chatbot-24-uur-digitale-inspecteur-artificiele-inte/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"Belgium","role":"Customer-facing / retail ops","org":"Carrefour Belgium","text":"Carrefour Belgium has launched an AI shopping assistant inside ChatGPT, built with Mealz.ai, that places grocery orders, checks stock and draws up shopping lists. It proposes priced meal plans, remembers dietary preferences and connects to the Carrefour Bonus Card, with home delivery or in-store pickup, following Carrefour France's earlier launch.","date":"2026-08-25","source":"https://www.retaildetail.eu/news/food/carrefour-brings-ai-shopping-assistant-to-belgium/"},{"kind":"evidence-impact","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","org":"College van Toezicht of the Flemish bar (stafhouders of the Vlaamse balies)","text":"Bar presidents (stafhouders) across Flanders receive more grievances against lawyers drafted wholly or partly with AI, per the Flemish bar's College van Toezicht annual report, and these AI-generated complaints often cite inapplicable, non-existent or Dutch rules. Longer filings slow handling. From 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025 opened disciplinary files reached 426, up from 268, with 266 dismissed and 39 sent to the disciplinary council; presidents want shared AI-grievance guidance, not filing hurdles.","date":"2026-07-01","source":"https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/07/01/vlaamse-stafhouders-zien-opmars-van-ai-klachten-tegen-advocaten/"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"Belgium","org":"FinTech Belgium, Sailpeak and Vlerick Business School","text":"The third AI Barometer from FinTech Belgium, Sailpeak and Vlerick Business School sees generative AI in financial services reaching Belgian core processes beyond coding and customer service. 67% deploy it in claims processing and 46% in KYC/ALM, 64% pilot it in underwriting, and institutions seeking positive AI returns rose from 47% in 2025 to 75% in 2026.","date":"2026-06-18","source":"https://www.fintechbelgium.be/news/ai-barometer-report-2026"},{"kind":"evidence-impact","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","org":"Hof van beroep Antwerpen (Antwerp Court of Appeal)","text":"The Hof van beroep Antwerpen (Antwerp Court of Appeal) granted a higher rechtsplegingsvergoeding (procedural indemnity) on 25 March 2026, finding one party's AI-drafted submissions had made the litigation disorderly, with ever-moving facts and legal bases. That AI misuse in litigation needlessly complicated the dispute. A recent Raad van State decision, cited beside it, holds that machine drafting cannot replace a lawyer's professional assessment.","date":"2026-04-09","source":"https://www.lexgo.be/en/news-and-articles/14741-recente-arresten-wijzen-op-gevaar-van-ai-voor-recht-zoe-ken-den"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","role":"Lawyers","org":"ALTIUS","text":"ALTIUS is extending Legora firm-wide to lawyers and support staff after a pilot and a review of more than 15 products. General manager Valerie Struye wanted learning to start now. Managing associate Bregt Raus helped bring national legal sources into the legal AI tool.","date":"2026-04-02","source":"https://legora.com/newsroom/from-15-tools-to-one-platform-how-altius-is-embedding-legal-ai-with-intent"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"Belgium","role":"Radiologist","org":"UZ Gent","text":"Ghent University Hospital has appointed the first full-time AI manager at a Flemish hospital to run at least 30 hospital AI projects, live or planned. In live use, AI locates the clot on CT scans in suspected stroke, replaces one of the two doctors reading each breast-screening scan, and does pre-surgical tissue-structure marking in minutes rather than hours. A doctor always has the final say, and the hospital discloses whenever an AI tool was used.","date":"2026-02-27","source":"https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2026/02/27/gent-ai-uz-universiteit-universitair-ziekenhuis-manager-toepassi/"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","org":"Wolters Kluwer","text":"Wolters Kluwer's Benchmarkrapport Advocatuur 2026 puts lawyer AI use in Belgium at 55.2%, drawing on 134 sole practitioners and small to mid-sized firms. Independent advocates trail, with AI adoption absent for 46.8% of them.","date":"2026-01-15","source":"https://www.lexgo.be/en/news-and-articles/14558-belgische-advocatenkantoren-onder-druk-van-digitalisering-efficientie-eisen-en-stijgende-clientenverwachtingen"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Digitaal Vlaanderen (Flemish Government)","text":"Belgium's Digitaal Vlaanderen built an AI literacy framework using five AI personas, showing local and Flemish civil servants which duties and skills each role needs. UNESCO co-developed the tool, which meets the EU AI Act's public-sector AI competence mandate and points staff toward linked training courses.","date":"2025-12-18","source":"https://www.vlaanderen.be/digitaal-vlaanderen/nieuws/ai-geletterdheid-binnen-de-vlaamse-overheid-digitaal-vlaanderen-neemt-het-voortouw"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Finance & Insurance","region":"Belgium","role":"Investment manager","org":"KBC Asset Management","text":"Algorithms now steer portfolio choices at KBC Asset Management in Belgium, marking a shift in AI investment management from support tool to primary driver. Machine-learning systems trained over several years scan markets and companies at scale, generating data-driven insights the investment committee acts on directly rather than merely reviewing. Final accountability still sits with people applying artificial intelligence in fund management, not the software itself.","date":"2025-10-21","source":"https://www.kbcbrussels.be/particulieren/nl/beleggen/thematisch-beleggen/beweeg-mee-met-de-toekomst/ai-in-vermogensbeheer-het-is-onze-ambitie-om-van-de-black-box-een-glass-box-te-maken.html"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Transport & Logistics","region":"Belgium","role":"Tram driver","org":"De Lijn","text":"Ghent-based firm Otiv engineered the tool now running on Antwerp trams for De Lijn, aiming to cut collisions by 20 per cent. Cameras and sensors flag hazards and alert drivers, an early rollout of AI driver assistance at the Flemish public transport company, working much like a digital co-pilot. Drivers involved wear biometric monitors so researchers can track shifts in alertness and workload.","date":"2025-09-23","source":"https://newmobility.news/nl/2025/09/24/de-lijn-tests-ai-driver-assistance-system-on-antwerp-trams/"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"Belgium","role":"Cashier","org":"Colruyt Group","text":"Halle shoppers can trial the AI-powered self-scanning shopping trolley, Smart Cart, now live at Colruyt Group's Lowest Prices branch, built in-house with EXPRESSO. Sensors and onboard processing let customers ring up goods and pay as they browse, an AI self-checkout cart retail approach that skips the till queue. A linked Smart Scale weighs loose produce with over 98% accuracy, and Colruyt calls itself the first Belgian chain to offer such a trolley.","date":"2025-09-16","source":"https://press.colruytgroup.com/colruyt-lowest-prices-first-retailer-to-introduce-customers-to-a-self-developed-smart-cart-a-belgian-first"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","role":"Lawyers","org":"Interius Advocaten","text":"Interius Advocaten scrapped its former systems for Innoverius, a Belgian legal AI suite built by Gert Loterman on Odoo, Microsoft 365 and OpenAI. Document drafting, case management and billing now run through this single legal practice management tool. Interius is the first firm using it.","date":"2025-09","source":"https://www.interius.be/hoe-interius-advocaten-legal-ai-omarmt-met-innoverius/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Minister for Government Modernisation","text":"Belgium's DeepSeek AI ban takes effect 1 December 2025 federally, ordered by the Minister for Government Modernisation. Belgian civil servants must delete DeepSeek applications and stop running them. Cybersecurity concerns drove the DeepSeek AI system prohibition: a June 2025 review by the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium found troubling patterns in how the Chinese chatbot handles transmitted data.","date":"2025-09-11","source":"https://www.deep-lex.com/ai-regulation-tracker/belgium"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","role":"Tax professionals","org":"PwC Belgium","text":"PwC Belgium has given every tax professional access to an AI tax assistant, the Tax AI Assistant, built with Harvey and trained specifically on Belgian case law and legislation. Rather than producing generic output, the tool drafts tax content tailored to domestic regulatory requirements. The rollout forms part of a broader ambition to position the firm as a leader in generative AI for tax advisory within professional services.","date":"2025-09-04","source":"https://press.pwc.be/pwc-belgium-rolls-out-belgian-version-of-the-pwc-tax-ai-assistant-the-tax-profession-is-evolving-at-full-speed"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","role":"Tax auditors","org":"Federal Public Service Finance (FOD Financiën)","text":"Belgium's Federal Public Service Finance will apply AI tax return checks to Belgian company and individual filings, Finance Minister Jan Jambon said. Trials precede a wider launch, with AI-based tax compliance screening bound by privacy law and the EU AI Act. Figures and a start date are unspecified.","date":"2025-09-03","source":"https://www.moustique.be/notre-epoque/les-infos/2025/09/03/nouveau-projet-pour-jan-jambon-lintelligence-artificielle-va-controler-nos-declarations-dimpots-OGGLASTJTBDBPBDVGV4TMKOOQE/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Belgian Federal Government","text":"Belgium's federal government now runs on a shared ethics code: forty public organisations back the new Charter for Responsible AI Use in Government Services, a project Minister Vanessa Matz put forward. Fairness, transparency and human oversight anchor the rules guiding artificial intelligence rollout across federal government AI. The framework aims to steer how public sector artificial intelligence gets used nationwide.","date":"2025-07-11","source":"https://socialsecurity.belgium.be/nl/ai-charter"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","role":"Lawyers","org":"Quinz","text":"Quinz, a Belgian firm, applies AI in legal practice, rolling out Legora's platform for firm-wide document review, search and summarisation. Teams scanned over 300 Belgian Supreme Court rulings against tight deadlines and shrank a competition-probe review from weeks to days via AI-assisted legal research.","date":"2025-06-12","source":"https://legora.com/newsroom/quinz-partners-with-legora"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Retail & Consumer","region":"Belgium","role":"Cashier","org":"Carrefour Belgium","text":"Carrefour Belgium runs a 24/7 checkout-free AI retail store at the Nato SHAPE base near Mons, Casteau — its biggest BuyBye micro-store yet, third overall, with 12 smart entrances. Built with Reckon.ai, cameras and weight sensors spot what shoppers take and charge them on exit, no tills needed. Over 250 daily goods fill the shelves, growing Carrefour's cashier-less shopping network.","date":"2025-05","source":"https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2025/5/15/carrefour-belgium-opens-another-reckonai-technology-powered-buybye-as-it-goes-live-at-nato-base"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Business Operations","region":"Belgium","role":"Facilities manager","org":"Proximus","text":"Proximus runs its AI Energy Box system across 44 sites in Belgium, trimming power draw and lifting renewable output through AI-powered energy management. Companion.energy, a Belgian startup, paired a digital twin with live market feeds so signals steer cooling gear and batteries toward greener consumption. A 2024 trial came first.","date":"2025-05","source":"https://www.proximus.com/news/2025/202506-news-energy-box-optimizes-proximus-energy-use.html"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Sales & Commercial","region":"Belgium","role":"B2B account manager","org":"Proximus NXT","text":"Proximus NXT, the B2B arm of Proximus, has rolled out uman, an AI platform for AI in B2B sales that supports account managers handling complex deals. The system pulls together relevant documents, product details and client background so meeting preparation takes minutes instead of hours, while also helping with follow-up work. Using AI-assisted account management, Proximus NXT reports the tool cuts preparation workload substantially and boosts cross-selling by making it simpler for staff to pitch products outside their usual range.","date":"2025-02-20","source":"https://news.evokepr.be/proximus-nxt-schaalt-b2b-verkoop-naar-hoger-niveau-met-ai-platform-umanai"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Legal & Professional Services","region":"Belgium","org":"Orde van Vlaamse Balies and Ordre des Barreaux Francophones et Germanophone","text":"Avocats.be and the OVB, Belgium's French-speaking and Flemish bar associations, issued joint rules on AI for legal work, treating such tools as optional rather than banned or compulsory. Lawyers must verify machine-generated outputs, protect client confidentiality, pseudonymise personal data, and stay fully accountable for finished work product. The framework leaves adoption of AI in legal practice to individual judgement while fixing firm duties on verification and data handling.","date":"2025-01-31","source":"https://lecercle.ai/en/blog/ai-guidelines-lawyers/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Belgian Federal Government","text":"The Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications now holds the AI Act market surveillance authority role, fixed by the Government Declaration and reaffirmed in the 2025-2029 Federal Government Agreement. This AI Act enforcement authority spreads fundamental-rights supervision across twenty-one bodies under Article 77, the highest count among EU member states.","date":"2025-01-31","source":"https://www.glacis.io/guide-eu-ai-act-belgium"},{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","role":"Civil servants","org":"Flemish Government","text":"Flanders will hand 10,000 Flemish civil servants and local staff Microsoft Copilot licences under Europe's biggest public sector Copilot deal. Prime Minister Matthias Diependaele sealed the four-year pact at Davos, betting on quicker paperwork and admin tasks via AI-assisted government services, part of Belgium's push toward wider public-sector AI adoption.","date":"2025-01-24","source":"https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2025/01/24/flemish-authorities-close-big-ai-deal-10-000-civil-servants-wil/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Belgian Data Protection Authority (DPA/GBA)","text":"Belgium's Belgian Data Protection Authority released a 23-page brochure on 19 September 2024 under Belgium AI regulation, mapping how the EU AI Act meshes with the GDPR to guide AI compliance frameworks. Titled \"Artificial Intelligence Systems and the GDPR - A Data Protection Perspective\", it shows where core privacy duties like openness, fair processing, lawful basis, minimal data use, limited purpose and accountability now stretch to cover AI systems, plus fresh or heavier obligations placed on providers and deployers handling personal information.","date":"2024-09-19","source":"https://www.alstonprivacy.com/belgian-data-protection-authority-publishes-guidance-on-the-interplay-between-the-gdpr-and-the-ai-act/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Federal Public Service Policy and Support (BOSA) / Federal Public Service Economy","text":"A Royal Decree created a Steering Committee on Artificial Intelligence (Sturingscomité inzake artificiële intelligentie) within the Federal Public Service Policy and Support and the Federal Public Service Economy, advising the federal government on Belgium AI policy. The body is the sole federal contact point for AI governance, draws members from several ministries, regions, universities, the National Labour Council, BIPT, the Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium and the language communities, and convenes at least three times yearly.","date":"2024-05-25","source":"https://etaamb.openjustice.be/nl/koninklijk-besluit-van-25-mei-2024_n2024005621.html"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Government of Flanders","text":"Belgium's Flanders region has locked in five more years of funding under the Vlaams Beleidsplan Artificiële Intelligentie (Flanders AI Policy Plan), approved 22 March 2024 and covering 2024-2028. Money splits three ways: 14.185 million euros yearly for core research via the Flanders AI Research Programme, backing for firms adopting AI tools, plus ethics, legal and skills work run by the Knowledge Centre Data & Society and Flemish AI Academy. Total spend across the Belgium AI strategy lands near 34 million euros a year.","date":"2024-03-22","source":"https://www.flandersai.be/nl/historiek-en-wettelijk-kader"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Federal Public Service Policy and Support (BOSA)","text":"Belgium's Raadgevend Comité Ethiek inzake Data en Artificiële Intelligentie (Advisory Committee on Ethics for Data and Artificial Intelligence), created by Royal Decree on 4 October 2023, shapes AI policy in government federally. Five experts on renewable five-year terms advise ministers on AI systems and data-driven technology, weighing rights, privacy, dignity and non-discrimination. This AI ethics in the public sector guidance is non-binding.","date":"2023-10-04","source":"https://etaamb.openjustice.be/nl/koninklijk-besluit-van-04-oktober-2023_n2023045485"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Belgium","org":"Council of Ministers / Federal Public Service Policy and Support (BOSA)","text":"The Belgian Council of Ministers adopted the National Convergence Plan for the Development of Artificial Intelligence on 28 October 2022, launching SmartAI.Nation. This Belgium AI policy rests on nine strands: trustworthy AI, cybersecurity, competitiveness, a data-driven economy, healthcare uses, sustainable mobility, environmental safeguards, lifelong learning and upgraded public services. It remains the federal blueprint for AI governance frameworks.","date":"2022-10-28","source":"https://www.eubelius.com/en/news/new-belgian-national-convergence-plan-for-the-development-of-artificial-intelligence"}]}