Professors call Netcompany's AI analysis unrealistic: 'It is problematic to make that kind of business case'

Netcompany, the Danish state's largest IT supplier, claims that AI could save the public sector 90,000 full-time work years by 2035. Two professors in the field have rejected that estimate as unrealistic and built on flawed data. Ingeniøren, the Danish engineering outlet that reported the story, quotes one of them as saying it is problematic to make that kind of business case.

The estimate comes from Netcompany Institute, the company's own think tank. It values the saving at roughly 54 billion kroner a year. CEO André Rogaczewski has said the public sector could free up 90,000 work years within ten years using AI.

The figure is three times the Danish government's own target of freeing 30,000 work years in the public sector through AI over the same period. The professors' criticism is that Netcompany's calculation rests on incomplete data.

According to a reader comment on the article, Netcompany has defended its analysis. It calls the data the best available basis for an overall analysis until more comprehensive Danish information exists on public-sector tasks and time use. It also says that where AI has already freed up working time, for example among professional groups that already have an AI assistant, those gains are included in the estimate so they are not counted twice. The commenter is sceptical and argues that this correction is much smaller than the uncertainty in the original calculation.

The dispute matters because a large supplier's savings figures can shape expectations and decisions about public-sector AI investment, and independent researchers are questioning whether the numbers hold up.