On New Year’s eve, the government of Albania has launched an AI-based virtual assistant called “Virtual Assistant 1.0) for the government e-services, the latest technology solution devised to assist citizens in obtaining public services by streamlining and accelerating interaction with the state and public institutions.
Another AI-based Virtual Assistant 2.0 will become operational within 2024, a voice- and image-activated chatbot that will independently process and complete the whole application process for every user requests for certain documents and public services. The latest technology application program was developed thanks to the cooperation between the Albanian national agency of information technology, AKSHI, and the world technology giant Microsoft’s team for artificial intelligence. The chatbot is not merely an application program, but also a guide and a 24/7 assistant to the citizens and the users of the digital governance portal, e-Albania.
Addressing a presentation ceremony of the latest service technology, Prime Minister Edi Rama said that “the application program is a significant example of a new era in which the whole world has entered in and about which we are seeking to do whatever it takes to harness the incredible potential of artificial intelligence.”
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Good afternoon! Today marks a crucial moment on the path towards further development of the communication between the citizens and all the state institutions in terms of public service delivery. Similarly, this is a meaningful example of a new era in which the whole world has entered in and about which we are seeking to do whatever it takes to harness the incredible potential of the artificial intelligence in terms of the service quality, in terms of the transparency of decision-making process, in terms of law and order-abiding of all internal processes in the state institutions, in terms of further easing and incredibly streamlining the procedures both for the citizens and business community, as well as in terms of overall modernization of our entire state establishment, starting with the legal bodies of the Republic of Albania.
As we have already announced earlier, on the New Year’s Eve we are making a virtual public servant available to every citizen, an assistant that will be ready for use and convenient around the clock, no matter whether it is a workday or a day off, to help citizens obtain their desired public services via interaction with the government platform e-Albania without needing help from anyone.
It is our ambition that we introduce this virtual assistant or this customized public servant to the citizens also to the co-governance platform. In the meantime, I would also like to underline in advance that – and AKSHI Director Linda will later elaborate and provide more details – the virtual assistant that is being introduced and employed to interact with the citizens via writing is being developed to make sure that after an introductory period with them, it includes audio and image interface component and be not merely an assistant guiding them in the application process, but carry out the whole process for the service required by citizens instead.
So, not too far from now – we are confident it will be finalized in the coming year – the citizens will just apply for a certain public service and the whole process, currently being carried out by the users themselves already through the help of this virtual assistant, will be completed by this AI-based public servant instead and the applicant will just obtain the required document or service, as well as the respective reply without any physical interaction of whatsoever.