Survey: Data and AI Challenges in Israel’s 2025 Ecosystem
2025 reshaped Israel’s reality in many ways, and the tech industry was no exception. What began as a year marked by slowdown in growth seems to end with reports of deals and funding rounds within the Israeli AI community. To ensure that our work continues to address the challenges and aspirations of the local AI ecosystem, and to maintain ongoing dialogue with community members, we recently conducted our first in-depth survey among founders participating in our events.
We reached out to more than 100 community members, from which we selected around 50 founders who completed the survey.
The primary goal of this survey was to gain insight into the broad challenges faced by early-stage AI companies in Israel.
In addition to mapping these challenges, we sought to understand which types of support and activities would generate the most value for early-stage companies. The responses we received (detailed below) will help us continue shaping initiatives, meetups, and programs that strengthen the community and equip founders with the tools they need for faster and safer progress.
Participants & Profile
- 49 founders representing 49 companies
- Survey period: July–November 2025
- Over 80% had either not raised any funding or had raised only pre-seed/seed rounds
- Fields of activity: AI, data, machine learning, NLP, and more
Technological Challenges
- 47% cited customer integration as the main challenge
- 43% struggle with hiring talent
- 28% said compute resources and costs are a challenge
- 26% struggle to gain access to high-quality datasets
- 18% cited scalability as a challenge
- 14% struggle with model performance
- 8% reported difficulties with cloud access*
Non-Technological Challenges
- 55% struggle with business development
- 45% struggle to find funding
- 39% struggle to build partnerships
- 24% have difficulty navigating regulation and compliance
- 22% struggle to gain visibility
- 10% reported that regulatory constraints hinder them*
(*Multiple-choice question)
Requests for Support Tools
When asked what kind of external support they needed, a clear majority –55% – said they would like help connecting with investors.
In addition:
- 49% want support connecting with customers
- 43% would appreciate help securing government grants
- 39% ask for access to compute resources
- 22% want support accessing new markets
- 18% want help forming academic partnerships
- ~20% want access to innovative pilot opportunities
- 12% cited a need for training
- Under 5% expressed a need for regulatory sandboxes*
(*Multiple-choice question)
We are currently working on an additional survey that will help us tailor support tools in the near future.
Interested in having your voice heard and participating? Write to us at [email protected]
A special thank-you to Galit Shul for her assistance in conducting the survey interviews.
