Portulans Institute
Portulans Institute

Analysis

Benchmarking the Future of the Network Economy

Preface

Just as earlier revolutions in connectivity reshaped economies and societies, today’s AI-driven transformation is rewriting the rules of global competitiveness.

The lessons of recent years underscore that governance must evolve alongside technology. Regulatory agility has become as critical as capital, talent, or infrastructure. Policies that foster innovation while addressing concerns over workforce disruption, data governance, and ethical use will determine who leads and who lags in the decades ahead.

We thank our Knowledge Partners, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI), for their continued support of the NRI. Our gratitude also extends to our Advisory Board, the NRI Technical Advisory Group, and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) for ensuring the precision and relevance of our analysis.

Bruno Lanvin

Bruno Lanvin
Co-editor and Co-author

Rafael Escalona Reynoso

Rafael Escalona Reynoso
Co-editor and Co-author

NRI 2025 Theme

NRI 2025 Theme

AI Governance in a Global Context:
Policy and Regulatory Approaches

The period spanning from ChatGPT’s emergence in late 2022 through the first half of 2025 witnessed an unprecedented acceleration in the development and deployment of AI technologies, initially catalyzed by the commercialization of generative AI and subsequently by the integration of agentic systems into critical infrastructure. This rapid technological evolution has precipitated a parallel urgency in global governance, compelling nations to navigate a complex dual imperative: fostering domestic innovation to secure economic and geopolitical competitiveness while simultaneously establishing regulatory frameworks to manage the profound risks associated with advanced AI systems.

This 2025 NRI report seeks to provide insights into the regulatory responses and policy innovations emerging across different regions by tracking trends in policy development, identifying potential driving forces behind successful approaches, and proposing actionable recommendations for governments seeking to enhance their competitive position.

Key messages

AI governance has become a source of economic and geopolitical power

AI governance is no longer a technical or purely domestic policy issue. Divergent regulatory models, defined by political systems, economic priorities, and strategic interests, are shaping global digital and economic competition.

North America emphasizes innovation and market leadership, the European Union prioritizes rights and legal certainty, China advances a state-coordinated approach, and many countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America link AI governance to development and sovereignty. These divergences are fragmenting the global digital ecosystem, complicating cross-border data flows, interoperability, and market access. Governance capacity itself has emerged as a determinant of economic resilience, strategic authority, and global influence.

Effective AI governance is sector-specific, adaptive, and increasingly shaped by private actors

The most consequential effects of AI governance emerge at the sectoral level, where abstract principles intersect with real-world risks in healthcare, finance, law enforcement, education, defense, labor markets, and environmental sustainability. Risk-based and adaptive regulatory approaches have shown promise, particularly in safety-critical domains.

At the same time, gaps in binding international rules have allowed voluntary standards, industry codes of conduct, and corporate commitments to function as de facto governance mechanisms for frontier AI. While these instruments offer speed and flexibility, they raise concerns about accountability and democratic legitimacy, as private actors increasingly influence safety thresholds, transparency norms, and deployment decisions with broad societal implications. Without inclusive participation and public-sector counterweights, reliance on such mechanisms risks privileging commercial and geopolitical interests over public values, particularly in regions with limited regulatory leverage.

Global cooperation on AI remains essential but structurally constrained

Despite widespread recognition that AI risks transcend borders, meaningful global coordination remains elusive. Geopolitical rivalry, asymmetric capabilities, and competing values constrain harmonization, while existing multilateral initiatives prioritize principles over enforcement.

The emerging reality is not convergence but a multipolar governance landscape, requiring pragmatic coordination, trust-building, and targeted cooperation to manage shared risks without assuming uniform regulatory models.

Digital readiness outperformance reflects governance quality and institutional execution, not income level alone

Across regions, overall network readiness outcomes are not evenly distributed by income level. A diverse set of middle- and low-income economies achieves levels of digital readiness that exceed what would typically be anticipated given income, while some high-income economies record slower-than-expected performance.

These patterns highlight the role of governance quality, institutional capacity, and policy execution, alongside structural conditions, in shaping digital readiness outcomes.

Distinct areas of digital readiness progress are emerging across middle- and low-income economies, even when overall performance remains uneven

Among middle- and low-income economies, digital progress frequently takes the form of differentiated strengths in specific areas of digital readiness, such as technology deployment, human capital and usage, governance frameworks, or societal impact, rather than uniformly high performance across all dimensions. These area-specific strengths cluster unevenly across regions.

Governance-related progress is most prominent across parts of Africa; broad-based strengths across multiple areas are most common in Asia and the Pacific; and more targeted advances, often linked to service delivery or social outcomes, are observed in the Americas, the Arab States, and the CIS. This pattern underscores the diversity of digital development pathways and illustrates how meaningful advances can emerge even where broader capabilities remain uneven.

Key Results

The Top 10

The United States has maintained its leading position in the NRI for the fourth consecutive year, demonstrating strong performance across all four pillars. Finland has advanced to second place, while Singapore has moved to third. Denmark ranks fourth, followed closely by Sweden in fifth place. The Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland occupy positions six through nine, respectively. The Republic of Korea rounds out the top ten, falling to tenth place.

Economy NRI Rank NRI Score Technology People Governance Impact
United States of America 1 79.13 82.47 76.16 86.48 71.42
Finland 2 75.82 66.28 62.94 88.91 85.17
Singapore 3 75.46 70.42 68.10 84.41 78.91
Denmark 4 75.14 67.47 58.75 92.02 82.30
Sweden 5 75.09 69.04 62.36 86.68 82.26
Netherlands 6 75.08 72.01 58.71 89.56 80.05
Germany 7 74.12 70.27 63.05 86.84 76.33
United Kingdom 8 73.85 67.74 67.97 84.62 75.07
Switzerland 9 73.63 73.60 59.49 83.76 77.66
Republic of Korea 10 72.38 66.07 72.55 82.05 68.84

Regional Leaders

The Network Readiness Index 2025 points to a diverse and uneven global digital landscape, with clear leaders emerging across regions and distinctive strengths spanning technology, governance, and societal impact. At the top of the rankings, the United States leads globally, reflecting sustained strength in technology adoption and innovation, underpinned by significant investments in emerging technologies, advanced telecommunications, and software-intensive industries.

Africa Arab States Asia & Pacific CIS Europe The Americas
1. Mauritius (58) 1. United Arab Emirates (26) 1. Singapore (3) 1. Russian Federation (56) 1. Finland (2) 1. United States of America (1)
2. South Africa (69) 2. Saudi Arabia (34) 2. Republic of Korea (10) 2. Armenia (62) 2. Denmark (4) 2. Canada (12)
3. Kenya (77) 3. Bahrain (36) 3. Japan (11) 3. Kazakhstan (65) 3. Sweden (5) 3. Costa Rica (42)

Note: Global ranks in parentheses. CIS = Commonwealth of Independent States.

Income Group Leaders

Income group leaders exhibit consistent patterns in innovation capacity, access to digital technologies, and the presence of governance arrangements that shape how these technologies are deployed. Among high-income economies, the United States, Finland, and Singapore occupy the top positions in the rankings, placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively. Their standing reflects strong and balanced performance across all dimensions of network readiness, distinguishing them from other economies at similar income levels.

High Income Countries Upper-Middle Income Countries Lower-middle Income Countries Low Income Countries
1. United States of America (1) 1. China (24) 1. Viet Nam (40) 1. Rwanda (87)
2. Finland (2) 2. Malaysia (38) 2. India (45) 2. Uganda (112)
3. Singapore (3) 3. Thailand (44) 3. Philippines (66) 3. Malawi (116)

Note: Global ranks in parentheses.

Continuing to improve the NRI model

Digital transformation necessitates a constant review of the data that powers the NRI model. Annually, the NRI team scours a variety of general and tech-specific sources, pinpointing new indicators that can effectively gauge the ever-shifting terrain of digital evolution and network readiness.

Stability is paramount; while evolving the model is crucial, ensuring its stability is equally essential for maintaining its validity. The refinement of the NRI stems from the introduction, evolution, or integration of relevant metrics. However, at the heart of the NRI model remains the belief that our shared future hinges on a seamless fusion of People and Technology.

As technology progresses, its interplay with people will intensify. Both entities will work hand in hand, forming a symbiotic relationship in both social and business realms. To bolster this alliance, it's imperative to institute governance structures addressing trust, security, and inclusivity. Our ultimate goal is to enhance the ways people can harness technology to its full potential, a measure that is reflected in three pivotal domains of societal wellbeing.

The Network Readiness Index

The 2025 NRI Report is anchored in the three core principles outlined by the NRI Technical Advisory Group in 2019, ensuring the NRI model remains future-ready.

  1. To maintain continuity with the major components of the NRI from previous years.
  2. To reflect the current issues concerning ICT deployment that the previous NRI models may not have adequately captured.
  3. To future-proof the NRI model regardless of developing future technology trends.

Technology

Central to the networked economy is technology. As a foundational component of the NRI, the Technology pillar aims to evaluate the technological infrastructure crucial for a country's engagement in the global economy. The Technology pillar's objectives are addressed through three sub-pillars:

  • Access: Assesses baseline ICT availability and affordability, including the reach and cost of communication infrastructure.
  • Content: Examines the generation and deployment of digital technologies and locally relevant content, drawing on data related to scientific publications, software expenditure, open-source contributions, and mobile application development and use.
  • Future Technologies: Evaluates exposure to and uptake of emerging technological paradigms, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and investment in nascent technologies.

Technology

People

The technological landscape mirrors the proficiency, inclusivity, and adeptness of the populace and entities of a nation in harnessing technological assets. The People pillar, therefore, assesses the application of ICT across three facets: individuals, enterprises, and public sectors.

  • Individuals: Captures patterns of individual technology use and the capacity to engage in the networked economy.
  • Businesses: Examines the integration of ICT within firms, including adoption of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and public cloud computing. This dimension draws on indicators such as venture capital investment activity in AI and measures of public cloud market scale.
  • Governments: Reviews public-sector deployment of ICT in service delivery and data management, as well as government investment in digital capabilities. Recent updates also incorporate measures related to gross expenditure on research and development.

People

Governance

Governance epitomizes the frameworks that fortify a holistic network, ensuring its users' safety. The Governance pillar emphasizes the creation and reachability of structures that invigorate the networked economy across a triad of dimensions:

  • Trust: Assesses the security and reliability of digital environments for individuals and organizations, capturing conditions that support confidence in digital interactions.
  • Regulation: Examines the role of public policy, regulatory frameworks, and strategic foresight in enabling participation in the networked economy.
  • Inclusion: Identifies digital divides within economies, including disparities linked to gender, disability, and income, and the extent to which governance arrangements address these gaps.

Governance

Impact

A nation's readiness in the networked economy translates into holistic growth and societal enhancement. The Impact pillar endeavors to gauge the diverse ramifications of engagement in the networked economy across a trio of arenas:

  • Economy: Considers the economic effects of digital integration, including domestic market scale, and innovation outputs such as ICT-related patent applications. Recent updates also incorporate measures related to technology-enabled work practices.
  • Quality of life: Captures social outcomes associated with digital engagement, reflecting broader well-being effects.
  • SDG contribution: Assesses the relationship between digital technologies and progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, drawing on indicators related to health, education, gender equality, and environmental sustainability.

Impact

Download the NRI 2025 Report → here