A presentation on the use of an artificial intelligence system to modernise state mechanisms – specifically the gov.gr portal – was made on Tuesday at the Maximos Mansion by the leadership of the digital governance ministry, in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The AI technology is to be used for the portal’s first digital assistant, which will help visitors navigate and use gov.gr services.
“The capabilities of artificial intelligence are now very impressive and I believe that, with what we are doing today, we are significantly upgrading the capabilities of gov.gr, effectively bringing it in step with its time or even ahead of its time as regards the ease with which we will be able to converse,” the prime minister said.
According to Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou, the digital assistance will be a form of chatbot that will be activated on a trial basis on Tuesday afternoon and help visitors find the services they need, answering simple or more complex questions.
Papastergiou said that this is the first AI application used by the public sector in Greece and one of the first in Europe, which will assist people in accessing some 1608 digitised state services now added to gov.gr and 3,270 digitised administrative processes incorporated in the MITOS register, as well as advising people on actions that need to be taken to process their requests.
Mitsotakis noted that the AI assistant is capable of learning as it carries out more interactions and he asked the public to show understanding if the initial replies are “not entirely correct” during this learning phase.
The mAIgov application will employ AI tools that allow the digital assistant to improve through its daily interactions with the public and constantly improve. In the trial phase it will be able to service roughly 240 questions in Greek per minute and this number will grow. The messages exchanged with the digital assistance will be completely anonymous, as it will not retain user data or ask for private information, such as payment information or passwords.
“We will wait for the feedback from the citizens and I believe that we will very soon be able to remove the indication “beta version” and make the service fully functional,” the prime minister added, expressing his conviction that people will soon embrace its use over the more traditional ways of using the portal.
Papastergiou, on his part, noted that mAIgov sought to further improve the services offered to citizens and enhance their trust in the state, making the state friendlier, more modern and efficient. Deputy Digital Governance Minister Konstantinos Kyranakis said that the assistant will provide a 24-hour service, which will improve the more that people use it and “train” it.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister Yiannis Bratakos, the director of the premier’s office, and by the general secretary for IT systems and digital governance Dimosthenis Anagnostopoulos.
