Participatory workshop and dialogue: "Digital transformation and artificial intelligence in Public Administration”

The workshop/dialogue would address building the strategic approaches for the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public administrations in the Western Balkans (WB).

The discussion/panel should provide answers on the existing conditions for the AI application in the public administration in Western Balkans, the current status and challenges in building the capacity of civil servants for AI application and what is needed to accelerate this process. The debate would encompass the issues from "how to start” via learning from the use cases in the countries with already significant experience to what the models of AI deployment in PAs in WB should contain. In some public administrations in WB first steps have been made (strategic documents are in place) and there is a growing interest on using AI in PAs.

The questions of awareness (what could be implications of using AI, ethical issues, etc.), existing expertise and existing/needed technical building blocks (educated staff, managers, using the know-how from private sector, available data and equipment) should be, as minimum requirements, addressed before embarking on the strategic planning of using AI.

Accumulated experience from the EU is something that WB public sector could build on to avoid the mistakes and impediments that have been identified in EU whether at the side of policies or the side of the operational application. Learning from countries/PAs that have piloted several AI projects for different PA needs or sectors (HRM, justice, environment, etc.) and examining on what worked well and what were the pain points and how they were/are addressed could provide significant savings for WB PAs when they plan or start deploying AI in a public setting.

The participatory workshop will be conceptualized as an open forum of dialogue between practitioners, experts, public servants and the audience and will include presentations of piloted, successful and unsuccessful initiatives from the EU. A guest expert will co-moderate the panel and provide the presentation of the good practices in EU member state/s.