Swiss report on top women in AI adds robotics and more regions
Greater Zurich Area and the ETH AI Center have published the second edition of Switzerland's Top 100+ Women in AI, Data and Robotics. The 2026 report adds robotics as a third field, covers more of the country and includes eleven in-depth portraits.
- Greater Zurich Area and the ETH AI Center published the second edition of the Top 100+ Women in AI, Data and Robotics report on 28 September 2026.
- Robotics is added as a third field, and the report includes eleven in-depth portraits.
- The report now features people from Lausanne, Lugano, Lucerne, Valais and Eastern Switzerland as well as Zurich.
- It appears ahead of the global AI Summit in Geneva in June 2027, which Fabiola Gianotti has been chosen to help shape.
What is new in the 2026 edition
The report was published on 28 September 2026 by the two organisations. According to the ETH AI Center, the first edition "was a bold step" and circulated for weeks across media and social platforms. Once the organisers saw how far it travelled, they decided it would not be a one-off.
The second edition changes the format in three ways. It adds robotics alongside AI and data, it reaches further across Switzerland, and it tells the stories behind the names in eleven in-depth portraits.
Responding to criticism about regional balance
The organisers say they took critical feedback seriously, above all the call to represent more of Switzerland. As a result, the report now features researchers and founders not only from Zurich but also from Lausanne, Lugano, Lucerne, Valais and Eastern Switzerland.
Robotics was added as a third field because, in the words of the ETH AI Center, "much of Europe's physical AI is being built here".
Timing ahead of the Geneva AI Summit
The publication is tied to an upcoming event. In June 2027, governments, researchers, industry and civil society will gather in Geneva for the global AI Summit. The source states that the Federal Council has chosen Fabiola Gianotti, the first woman to lead CERN, to help shape it.
The ETH AI Center argues that Switzerland's AI and robotics ecosystem is full of women doing substantive work, but that this work is not always visible. With the world's AI community heading to Geneva, it says, making it visible "has never mattered more".
A signal about Switzerland as a talent hub
For Greater Zurich Area, the report also speaks to Switzerland's position as a talent hub. The organisation notes that international companies follow the brightest minds, and says the report shows the world, ahead of Geneva 2027, how much of that talent is already shaping AI, data and robotics in the country.
The report describes the women it features as already part of decisions about what AI should look like, who builds it and who benefits from it. According to the source, they are advancing research, building companies and infrastructure, transforming established industries, shaping policy and creating the communities that connect them all.
The full report is available through the ETH AI Center and Greater Zurich Area.
ETH AI Center: Switzerland's Top 100+ Women in AI, Data and Robotics - 2026 edition
