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On Friday September 4, 2026, the Administrative Delegation gave its agreement to the launch of the PIA pilot project, an AI assistant called to support the Swiss Parliament. PIA will be available to parliamentarians from the fall 2026 session.
ContentArtificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we work. It offers new possibilities, but its use also raises important questions relating to data security, data sovereignty and how to handle sensitive information responsibly. The requirements that apply to the Swiss Parliament in this area are particularly high. Open access AI tools often do not meet these requirements and may therefore only be made available to parliamentarians and Parliamentary Services staff on a limited basis. Parliament and Parliamentary Services nevertheless wish to keep pace with technological developments and test the use of AI that is safe, responsible and judicious. Therefore, at its meeting on Friday September 4, 2026, the Administrative Delegation (DA) gave its agreement to the launch of the PIA pilot project, which should last approximately one year. PIA is an acronym for Artificial Intelligence of Parliament. The pilot project is expected to cost, regardless of the intensity of use of the tool, a maximum of 150,000 francs, an amount which will be covered by the IT budget of the Parliamentary Services. PIA can be used by parliamentarians, their personal collaborators, collaborators of parliamentary groups as well as staff of Parliamentary Services. This tool will be introduced in the fall 2026 session. The DA also approved a cheat sheet on the responsible use of AI. This document defines the fundamental principles regarding the use of AI and its applications in the parliamentary context. During the autumn session, specialists will be available to parliamentarians to answer their questions regarding the use of AI. Data exploitation and storage in Switzerland The pilot project is carried out in collaboration with Swisscom. Data entered into PIA is not used to train AI models. Users can select different models with free access (open weight models or ). New models will be added regularly. Currently, the available templates are mainly suitable for processing committee documents and it is not yet possible to carry out an in-depth search on the Internet or view current data. The operation and storage of data is carried out exclusively by Swisscom, in Switzerland. In this way, PIA meets the high requirements in terms of data protection and data sovereignty. PIA does not entirely replace other applications involving AI, but rather is designed as a secure complement to existing tools for use cases with particularly high demands in terms of security and data sovereignty. Thus PIA will be able to process, for example, committee documents classified up to the classification level INTERNAL. Mandate of the DA The pilot phase will serve to determine how AI can support parliamentary work in a relevant way. To this end, the use of PIA will be evaluated, possible fields of application examined and market developments regularly studied. The consideration of an AI assistant reserved for use by Parliament has its origins in motion 25.3530 tabled by the Security Policy Committee of the National Council, since withdrawn. In this context, the DA, the IT Parliamentary Group and the Council Office looked at how an AI assistant could support members of Parliament at the end of 2025. On March 12, 2026, the DA tasked Parliamentary Services with developing a secure and pragmatic solution, and on September 4, 2026, it agreed to the launch of the PIA pilot project. The action to be taken at the end of the pilot phase will depend on the results of the evaluation. A possible lasting solution will be put in place as part of a call for tenders procedure.
