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Effective economic development has always relied on one fundamental principle: setting the right impulses within a region. Whether through supporting startups, connecting businesses, or helping established industries adapt to structural change, regional development agencies play a crucial role in strengthening local economies. Their success depends on understanding who the key actors are, how they are connected, and where emerging opportunities lie.
Regional economies are complex, living systems. Even in smaller regions, thousands of companies operate simultaneously — and every year, hundreds are founded while others close, merge, or relocate. Companies adopt new technologies, form new partnerships, and explore new markets at an accelerating pace.
For regional development professionals, keeping track of these changes is both essential and nearly impossible. Traditional sources such as trade registers or static databases offer only limited insights. They are too rigid, updated too infrequently, and cannot answer the most pressing modern questions — for example: Which companies in my region are using AI? Which startups are emerging in hydrogen technologies? Which local suppliers could contribute to the electric mobility transition?
Even with deep personal networks and years of local experience, no single individual can maintain a complete, real-time understanding of an entire regional ecosystem.
Artificial intelligence — and particularly AI agents — are fundamentally changing this equation. We are entering a new era in economic research, regional development, and market intelligence.
AI agents can continuously monitor entire markets — defined by region, technology, or ecosystem — and interpret them in real time. They go beyond data collection to provide meaningful insights: identifying who the key players are, what technologies they adopt, and how innovation networks evolve.
This marks a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive economic development. Instead of spending countless hours manually searching for information, professionals can focus on strategic action — connecting the right actors, facilitating cooperation, and guiding investment where it will have the greatest impact.
At Istari, we are building the infrastructure for this new age of market intelligence. Emerging from academic research, Istari develops trustworthy European AI agents designed to observe and understand markets as dynamic, interconnected systems.
Our platform enables users to identify, map, and continuously monitor any market — be it a specific region, a technology field, or an industrial cluster. With Istari Region Insights, we provide real-time snapshots of regional ecosystems that answer complex questions instantly and reliably.
The result is a living, data-driven understanding of local economies — one that empowers decision-makers to act faster, target interventions more precisely, and build stronger, more resilient regions.
The power of AI in economic development lies not just in access to more data, but in turning data into actionable knowledge. Knowing that a region has 1,500 AI-related companies is useful; knowing which of those companies are relevant for a particular challenge, and how they connect within the local innovation ecosystem — that is transformative.
By leveraging AI agents, regional development agencies can finally bridge the gap between analysis and action. They can anticipate trends, identify opportunities earlier, and collaborate more effectively across sectors.
Artificial intelligence is not merely a new tool — it is the foundation of a new way of understanding and shaping economic systems. With AI-powered market intelligence, we can move from isolated efforts to systemic coordination, from static reports to living models, and from fragmented data to shared regional insight.
The result is more than efficiency. It is the beginning of a smarter, more connected, and more adaptive approach to regional economic development — one that will define the next era of growth in Europe and beyond.