Starting an AI or digital agency in Geneva: what Geneva and EU clients will require before your first project

No permit and no protected title

An AI or digital agency in Geneva opens without prior authorisation. The canton’s list of commercial activities that need a permit covers, among others, itinerant trade, restaurants and bars, taxis, lenders and auctions; web development, automation and artificial intelligence are not on it. No diploma is required, and “AI specialist” is not a protected title.

By AI or digital agency we mean a business that builds tools for its clients: websites and apps, integrations between software, conversational agents, automatic document extraction. An agency that designs campaigns and brand identities is a different business, covered in our guide on starting a marketing agency in Geneva, which deals with VAT on its services, rights in its creatives’ work and advertising law. The line matters, because an agency that handles its clients’ data moves into a different risk category.

Geneva clients bound by secrecy

Geneva has a feature that agencies often discover during negotiations: a large share of potential clients are bound by secrecy. Private banks and asset managers, law and notary firms, doctors and clinics, family offices and trust companies do not let their data travel the way an online shop does.

The Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) addresses this directly. A client may only assign processing to a processor if “no statutory or contractual duty of confidentiality prohibits assignment” (Art. 9(1)(b) FADP). Depending on the data and the secrecy involved, the answer may be no, or yes under strict conditions: hosting in Switzerland, no external model, named access rights, full logging. The client decides; your job is to describe precisely where the data goes.

Consider a two-person agency set up in Geneva by a Canadian founder, asked by a local family office to build an assistant that sorts statements and correspondence. Before any code is written, the agency needs to know whether the confidentiality the family office owes its own clients allows a processor at all, whether documents may leave its servers, and whether a language model run by a third party is acceptable. In files of this kind the answer often points towards a model running on infrastructure in Switzerland, which changes the quote, the timeline and the profile of developers to hire.

What the FADP expects from your agency

An agency processing personal data for a client is a processor, and the client remains the controller. Article 9 FADP sets the conditions: a contract or the law provides for the assignment, the agency only processes data “in the manner in which the controller itself is permitted to do it”, and no confidentiality duty stands in the way. The client must also satisfy itself that the agency “is able to guarantee data security” (Art. 9(2)).

Every third-party tool is another processor

“The processor may only assign processing to a third party with prior approval from the controller” (Art. 9(3) FADP). The host, the automation platform and the model provider are all third parties. Approval comes first, preferably in writing, and the agency keeps the list up to date.

Security and incidents

Processors must ensure data security appropriate to the risk (Art. 8(1) FADP) and notify the controller as soon as possible of any data security breach (Art. 24(3)). A leaked API key, an export sent to the wrong recipient, a compromised account at a supplier: the client then decides whether to notify the FDPIC and the people affected.

A fine that targets the founder

The FADP punishes individuals acting wilfully, not companies. On complaint, a fine of up to 250,000 francs may be imposed on private persons who hand processing to a processor in breach of Art. 9(1) and (2), send data abroad contrary to Art. 16, or ignore minimum security requirements (Art. 61 FADP). In a three-person agency, the managing officer who signs is the one exposed.

EU clients: GDPR, adequacy and the processor contract

For a Geneva agency, French clients are often the nearest, and Switzerland has an argument to offer: in its report of 15 January 2024, the European Commission kept Switzerland’s data protection regime on its list of adequate ones. A company in Lyon or Annecy can therefore transfer personal data to you without additional safeguards. The GDPR still shapes the relationship, for two reasons.

First, your client is the controller under the GDPR and must sign with you the processor contract described in Art. 28(3): subject matter and duration, categories of data, documented instructions, confidentiality, assistance, return or deletion at the end. Second, “the processor shall not engage another processor without prior specific or general written authorisation of the controller” (Art. 28(2) GDPR). The rule mirrors the FADP, but it is your French client who will invoke it, with its own template.

The GDPR may also apply to the agency directly, where it processes data of people in the Union in connection with offering them services or monitoring their behaviour (Art. 3(2) GDPR): audience analytics, segmentation or personalised recommendations on a website aimed at French consumers.

The EU AI Act crosses the border

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on artificial intelligence applies to “providers and deployers of AI systems that have their place of establishment or are located in a third country, where the output produced by the AI system is used in the Union” (Art. 2(1)(c)). For a Geneva agency, that test is met as soon as a deliverable serves a client or users in France.

Take an online retailer in Lyon. A Geneva agency builds it an assistant that answers shoppers’ questions about orders and returns. Shoppers must be informed that they are interacting with an AI system unless it is obvious (Art. 50(1)), at the latest at the time of the first interaction (Art. 50(5)), and that duty has applied since 2 August 2026. If the assistant carries the retailer’s brand, the retailer has had it developed and puts it into service under its own name: it is in principle the provider within the meaning of Art. 3(3), with the agency as developer. If the agency sells the same assistant to twenty retailers under its own brand, the agency is the provider.

The July 2026 digital omnibus postponed the heavy obligations, not transparency. It also rewrote the AI literacy duty in Art. 4: providers and deployers take measures “to support the development of AI literacy of their staff”, without having to guarantee a given level for each individual. For a small agency, that means documented training for the team, not a certificate.

What about a Swiss AI law?

There is none, and there will be no single horizontal act. On 12 February 2025 the Federal Council decided to ratify the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and to proceed through sector-specific amendments; a consultation draft is due by the end of 2026. For data processing, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) has held since 2023, and restated in an update of 8 May 2025, that the FADP already applies to AI systems: among other things, people have the right to know whether they are talking or writing to a machine.

A decision based exclusively on automated processing that has a legal consequence for, or a considerable adverse effect on, the person must be disclosed to them, and they may ask for a human review (Art. 21 FADP). A tool that automatically rejects applications, credit requests or complaints falls within this rule, in Switzerland as in France.

Freelancers’ code and AI-generated output

Many Geneva agencies work with independent developers living across the border in France, and that is often where ownership of the code slips away. The Copyright Act gives the employer the exclusive rights of use in a computer program created by an employee in the course of their duties (Art. 17), but only employees are covered. A freelancer, cross-border or not, keeps the rights in their code until they assign them, and “the assignment of a right subsisting in the copyright does not include the assignment of other partial rights, unless such was agreed” (Art. 16(2)). Without a written clause, the agency cannot pass on to its client what it never received.

Content produced by a model raises a different question. The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IPI) points out that Swiss copyright only protects works created by a human being; text or images generated without human creative input are not works. A client paying for generated visuals therefore gets no exclusivity from an assignment clause alone. The contract should say so, state the licence terms of the tool used, and allocate the risk of infringing third-party rights.

Work contract, mandate and retainer

Swiss law has no “digital agency contract”; it qualifies what you actually do. Delivering a defined website, app or automation for a price is in principle a work contract (Art. 363 Code of Obligations): the client inspects the work on delivery and reports defects (Art. 367), then may refuse an unusable work or obtain a price reduction or rectification (Art. 368).

Monthly support, advice and ongoing optimisation look more like a mandate (Art. 394 CO), and “the mandate may be revoked or terminated at any time by either party” (Art. 404(1) CO). If your support contract is qualified as a mandate, your Geneva client can end it overnight, owing compensation only for termination at an inopportune juncture (Art. 404(2)). A contract drafted on a French services template does not change that rule where Swiss law governs. Have the qualification checked by a lawyer; on our side we draw the accounting consequences, because revocable revenue is not a firm order book.

Incorporating the agency in Geneva

A GmbH (Sàrl) with share capital of CHF 20,000 fully paid in suits most agencies starting with two or three partners. An AG (SA), with share capital of CHF 100,000 of which at least CHF 50,000 is paid in, makes sense when an investor joins or banking clients expect a stronger counterparty; our GmbH or AG comparison for Geneva sets out the differences, and our checklist to set up a company in Geneva lists the steps up to the commercial register entry.

Three accounting and tax points come up in every Geneva AI agency:

• VAT: services to a client established in France are in principle outside Swiss VAT under the place-of-recipient rule (Art. 8(1) VAT Act); services you buy abroad follow the acquisition tax rules, which our article on setting up a SaaS startup in Geneva explains.
• Recurring revenue: retainers invoiced in advance are spread over the period they cover; a dashboard that confuses cash received with revenue overstates the margin.
• Fixed-price projects: work in progress at year end must be valued, otherwise each year’s result depends on the invoicing calendar.

Common pitfalls

• Offering an external model to a client bound by secrecy without checking that its confidentiality duty allows a processor (Art. 9(1)(b) FADP).
• Signing the French client’s contract without checking the sub-processor list: the prior written authorisation in Art. 28(2) GDPR applies to every tool.
• Forgetting that the assistant talks to EU users: Article 50 AI Act disclosure has applied since 2 August 2026.
• Paying a freelancer without an assignment clause, then promising the client ownership of the code.
• Selling generated content as exclusive creative work.
• Counting a twelve-month retainer as secured when a mandate can be revoked at any time.

FAQ: starting an AI agency in Geneva

Do you need a permit to open an AI agency in Geneva?

No. AI and digital agencies are not among the commercial activities that require a permit in the canton of Geneva, and no federal authorisation exists for this business. The company is entered in the commercial register in the usual way. Obligations come from data protection law, copyright, the Code of Obligations and, for EU clients, the GDPR and the AI Act.

Can a Geneva agency process data for a private bank or a law firm?

Yes, if the confidentiality duty binding that client does not prohibit it. Article 9(1)(b) FADP only allows assignment to a processor where no statutory or contractual duty of confidentiality stands in the way. Depending on the secrecy involved, the client may require hosting in Switzerland, no external model and strictly named access; it decides on the basis of the precise description the agency provides.

Can a French client send personal data to an agency in Geneva?

Yes. In its report of 15 January 2024 the European Commission confirmed that Switzerland ensures an adequate level of protection, so no additional safeguards are needed for the transfer. The client must, however, sign the processor contract required by Art. 28(3) GDPR, and the agency may not engage another processor without its prior written authorisation.

Does the EU AI Act apply to an agency based in Geneva?

Yes, as soon as the output of the AI system is used in the European Union (Art. 2(1)(c) of Regulation 2024/1689). The transparency duties in Article 50 have applied since 2 August 2026, for example telling French users of an assistant that they are dealing with an AI. High-risk obligations were postponed to 2 December 2027 and 2 August 2028 by Regulation 2026/1744.

Who owns code written by a freelance developer?

The freelancer, unless they assign it in writing. Article 17 of the Copyright Act gives employers the rights in software created by employees, not by independent contractors. The agency must obtain an assignment covering every use it promises its client, because the assignment of one right does not include the others unless agreed (Art. 16(2) Copyright Act).

Which legal form suits an AI agency in Geneva?

A GmbH (Sàrl) with CHF 20,000 of fully paid-in capital suits most agencies at the start. An AG (SA), with CHF 100,000 of capital of which at least CHF 50,000 is paid in, makes sense when an investor joins or institutional clients expect it. In both cases, limited liability does not cover FADP fines, which target individuals.

Sources

• Republic and Canton of Geneva, commercial activities requiring a permit
• Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), SR 235.1
• FDPIC, current data protection legislation is directly applicable to AI, update of 8 May 2025
• FDPIC, EU adequacy decision regarding Switzerland, 15 January 2024
• Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR)
• Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 (AI Act)
• Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 of 8 July 2026 (digital omnibus on AI)
• OFCOM, AI regulation: Federal Council decision of 12 February 2025
• Copyright Act, SR 231.1
• IPI, AI tools and copyright, 17 February 2023
• Code of Obligations, SR 220