From Lab to Market: P2CODE Brings AI Swarm Programmability to the ADR Forum 2025

Exploring collaborative rollouts, open platforms, and the future of EU AI markets

At the ADR Forum 2025 in Stavanger, Norway (23–24 September), P2CODE took centre stage in one of the event’s most forward-looking sessions—the workshop “From Lab to EU Open Digital Markets: AI Swarm Programmability & Collaborative Rollouts.” The session, part of the Emerging ADR Technologies track, brought together researchers, innovators, and industry experts to examine how swarm intelligence and distributed AI can transition from laboratory prototypes to operational, market-ready systems—within the framework of the EU’s evolving open digital ecosystem.

Swarm Intelligence Meets Open Platforms

Chaired by Vrettos Moulos (ARHS Group), with contributions from fellow swarm cluster representative from the TarDIS project, Dr. Carlos Coutinho (Caixa Mágica Software) and Dr. Christos Gizelis (OTE Group Innovation Center), the workshop encouraged lively debate around the challenges and opportunities of deploying AI across heterogeneous, edge-based, and swarm environments.

Participants explored how European open platforms such as AI-on-Demand and EU open digital markets can act as accelerators for collaborative innovation—transforming early-stage AI research into trusted and scalable digital services. Discussions focused on how to lower barriers to adoption, improve digital literacy, and embed governance-by-design principles to ensure compliance with the EU AI Act, especially in distributed and safety-critical contexts.

From Technical Depth to Market Readiness

The workshop tackled several core objectives: mapping paths from research to business, operationalizing privacy and resilience in swarm-based architectures, and defining practical KPIs for collaborative rollouts. The guiding questions ranged from deployment challenges in heterogeneous edge environments to the business implications of decentralized AI models and the role of user literacy in sustaining these systems.

As Moulos summarized during the discussion, “Swarm intelligence represents not just a technical paradigm but a new model for collaboration and scale—where openness, interoperability, and trust are the foundations of innovation.”

P2CODE’s Role: Building Bridges Between Projects

P2CODE’s participation underscored the project’s commitment to fostering cross-initiative collaboration within Europe’s AI and computing continuum. The team shared best practices on programmable orchestration and distributed intelligence while identifying synergy opportunities—notably with DeployAI, a flagship initiative within the AI for Europe ecosystem.

Thanks to the involvement of OTE (a member of the DeployAI consortium), meaningful dialogue unfolded around how swarm intelligence could integrate with the architecture of the upcoming AI-on-Demand marketplace. This exchange provided mutual insights into technical alignment, standardization needs, and potential interoperability bottlenecks—critical areas for the long-term sustainability of Europe’s open AI landscape.

Towards Standardization and Sustainable Rollouts

Standardization remains a strategic pillar for P2CODE, and the ADR Forum provided an ideal venue to advance this agenda. The project’s ongoing work on service orchestration, trust management, and distributed resource coordination directly contributes to shaping a coherent and interoperable European AI ecosystem.

As highlighted during the session, the road from research to deployment is not merely technical—it involves licensing frameworks, business models, user engagement, and policy alignment. By bridging the gap between low-level AI architectures and high-level governance frameworks, P2CODE exemplifies how EU-funded innovation can drive both technological excellence and market trust.

A Collaborative Future

Beyond the workshop, the P2CODE delegation engaged in networking and exploratory talks with other Horizon Europe initiatives, discussing potential joint white papers, standardization efforts, and cross-pilot experimentation. These interactions reflected a shared recognition that AI’s next frontier lies in collaboration—not just between algorithms, but among Europe’s diverse digital ecosystems.