Slovakia: Public Sector dimension of AI Strategy

Introduction

This page reports a synthesis of the main elements that characterise the national AI strategy with a specific focus on the public sector. It extracts the information related to a single country from a comparative analysis done by the AI Watch team and reported in full in the science for policy report “AI Watch. European Landscape on the Use of Artificial Intelligence by the Public Sector”.

Main highlights

AI is seen as one of the priority technologies for the Slovakian government
Digital Innovation Hubs will play an important role in supporting uptake of AI in public sector organizations
Innovation laboratories will be introduced within public administrations, acting as a key unit to introduce pilots, collaborate with private and academic stakeholders and ensure funding
Local governments will be supported to implement AI
A focus will be put on improving the availability and use of data within public administrations

Strategy analysis

Learning by doing	Regulatory sandboxes Pilots projects
Stimulating awareness and knowledge sharing	Awareness campaigns Building an international community
Ethical and legal framework	Development of ethical framework Reform of data sharing laws
Improving data access and quality	Improving data quality Improving data access
Funding and procurement	Funding for AI projects Stimulation of GovTech startups
Improving internal capacity	Training on AI New public bodies

Comment

Slovakia’s strategy puts a focus learning by doing: experiment, sandboxing and piloting. In particular it highlight the importance of Digital Innovation Hubs in supporting the uptake of AI and other innovative technologies in public sector organisations and SME’s.

Coherently the relation between public and private sector is crucial. Innovation laboratories will be introduced for public administrations to solutions for problems in government sectors, legislative changes, new pilots, experiments, monitoring. These innovation laboratories will establish partnerships with the public, private and academia which should be part of the innovation ecosystem.

To improve the data access and quality, the Data Office Department will grow ensuring that public sector data will be published. Moreover, the strategy has a specific section aimed at improving the use of data in public administrations

General Information

Title

Action plan for the digital transformation of Slovakia for 2019 – 2022

Data of release

Oct 2019

Specific actions to public sector

Strategic objective 3: “We will improve abilities of the public administration to innovate and use data for

the benefit of citizens”