Commentary: Government and Netcompany's wildly differing AI savings figures criticised

Netcompany, the Danish IT consultancy, recently published a report claiming that the Danish public sector could save 90,000 full-time positions (årsværk) by introducing AI solutions broadly. The calculation was carried out by Netcompany Institute, which the commentary notes ironically was chosen for the sake of independence.

The piece is a commentary by Peter Christian Bech-Nielsen, founder and tech correspondent at Ingeniøren, published on 19 October. It sets Netcompany's figure against the government's own numbers for AI-saved working years. The subhead says the government's "dream figure" for AI has been tripled, and the headline's "Rogaczewski to the rescue" refers to Netcompany CEO André Rogaczewski. The commentary frames Digitalisation Minister Christina Egelund (M) as having to choose between her government's figures and Rogaczewski's far larger estimate.

The author's argument is that the public is held hostage by wildly divergent, imaginative AI numbers, and that the gap between the government's estimates and Netcompany's makes them hard to trust. The text available here cuts off early in the commentary, so the government's exact figure and the author's detailed critique of the Netcompany methodology are not included.

The piece matters because AI savings estimates can shape Danish public-sector digitalisation policy and spending. This commentary questions whether a vendor-linked analysis, even one labelled independent, should carry weight alongside official calculations. It is presented as the author's personal opinion.