The Public Sector Tech Watch (PSTW) observatory launched in 2024 the ‘Best Cases Award’. The aim was to spotlight solutions using emerging technologies (Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, etc.) in public administrations at all levels to enhance public services for citizens (G2C) or to improve their internal processes (G2G). On the one hand, the award aimed to generate a virtuous mechanism for sharing the best experiences on the use of emerging technologies in the public sector; and on the other, to give visibility to the most innovative public administrations in Europe.
The deadline for submissions was the 30th of August 2024. A big thank you to all submitters! Thirty-two cases were received to run for the 2024 Award: out of those, fourteen cases were shortlisted in a prior evaluation. This article is divided in three sections: the first, displaying the G2G nine shortlisted cases; the second, showcasing the pre-selected five G2C cases; and the third, which includes information (also in a pdf format) of all cases submitted to the Best Cases Award.
The Evaluation Committee will announce the final winners during the Grand Finale at the GovTech Connect Assembly on 28 November 2024. You can register your interest for the event here.
Do you find a case specially interesting? Try to predict the Committee's choice and vote for your favorite case in the polls below! The Award's evaluation criteria and all the information related to the award can be accessed through this link.
Government-to-Government (G2G) Award Category
Below are all the nine shortlisted cases running for the G2G (government-to-government) award category. These highlight notable solutions envisioned for/implemented in the public sector that use emerging technologies to improve their internal processes. To see all the submitted cases, go to the section below "All submitted cases".
Innovation in Local Government: Digital Transformation and GeoAI for Data Management
- Submitter organisation: Suma Gestión Tributaria. Diputación de Alicante
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Pilot
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Suma Gestión Tributaria. Diputación de Alicante (Local)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. Local
- Description: It develops DataManagement in Public Administrations through the combination of Geographic Information Systems and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (Machine Learning, Deep Learning) for training in the detection of properties that are not taxed in the local tax lists, collecting data from other administrations and entities and putting them into taxation. It aims to avoid delays in collection for local councils and inconvenience for citizens.
Autonomous Inspector for public infrastructures: Monitoring Work Zones for Bizkaia Regional Council and Interbiak
- Submitter organisation: Bizkaia Regional Council
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Bizkaia Regional Council – Bizkaia Interbiak (Local)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. Local
- Description: The Autonomous Road Inspector and the Autonomous Urban Inspector are solutions designed by ASIMOB (a Data as a Service - DaaS company) that helps Public Administrations perform automatic monitoring of roads. The solution transforms any vehicle in an inspector of the assets of the infrastructure thanks to Computer Vision techniques and information from sensors, thus, it can check automatically the status of traffic signs, road markings, safety barriers, etc.
AI to streamline the sorting of certified emails (CEs)
- Submitter organisation: Italian Social Security and Welfare Administration (INPS)
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Italian Social Security and Welfare Administration (INPS) (National)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Italy. National
- Description: INPS uses an open-source machine learning model that analyses all CEs and their attachments, accurately classifies them into the relevant topics and directs them to the designated personnel, effectively eliminating the need for manual processing. Over two million emails have been successfully classified since its deployment.
Application of drones for the transport of biological samples between a primary health centre and a hospital
- Submitter organisation: CTTI, Generalitat de Catalunya
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Pilot
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: CTTI, Generalitat de Catalunya (Regional)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. Regional
- Description: This project implements and evaluates a health transport route in the health region of Girona, which allows the transport of biological samples (blood and urine) and equipment between a primary health centre and a hospital. The results of the pilot show a reduction from 20 minutes in ground transport to 7 minutes in drone transport. The quality of the samples transported has improved, flexibility in scheduling transport times has increased, and the environmental impact is reduced.
Robotic Process Automation in the Administration of Justice
- Submitter organisation: Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Ministerio de la Presidencia, Justicia y Relaciones con las Cortes (Central)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. National
- Description: Th application of Robotic Process Automation to routine, repetitive and low-risk work, allows to streamline the work of the processing staff and to help citizens and professionals. To date, more than 25 lines of process automation have been launched, including automatic cancellation of criminal records, nationality applications, automatic issuance of life insurance certifications, etc., and it is estimated to have saved more than 500 thousand hours of work for civil servants.
Artificial Intelligence in the Processing of Official Publications – AI for summaries
- Submitter organisation: Official Barcelona Provincial Gazette and Documentation and Official Publications Service
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Barcelona Provincial Council (Local)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. Local
- Description: The CIDO (Official Information and Documentation Searcher) has implemented an AI system that automatically generates summaries of official publications from Barcelona's public administrations. Using supervised machine learning techniques and neural networks, the system generates summaries of up to 100 words for publications in Catalan or Spanish and records manual modifications to improve accuracy.
eFTI4EU: making the future of freight transport digital
- Submitter organisation: Estonian Ministry of Climate
- Technology and status: Blockchain. In development
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Estonian Ministry of Climate as project coordinator (Central)
- Geographical coverage and extent: European Union
- Description: the eFTI4EU project aims to create a robust framework for the digital transformation of freight transport across Europe, and it is the first project making the EU Regulation 2020/1056 (eFTI) real. The project aims to implement a reference architecture for exchanging logistics and transport data, which will be piloted through a series of use cases (both at national and cross-border level) in all the 9 Member States directly involved.
Reimagining Helsinki: Participatory urban planning with Generative AI
- Submitter organisation: City of Helsinki
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: City of Helsinki (Local)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Finland. Local
- Description: Helsinki is integrating advanced AI technologies into urban planning. The solution, UrbanistAI features AI-powered co-design tools allowing participants to create realistic images of potential street transformations so they could be discussed and evaluated. This approach uses the universal language of imagery and it is highly inclusive, involving individuals of all demographics. Together, they successfully co-designed two streets that were later constructed.
Water Piper Leakage Management
- Submitter organisation: Netcompany-Intrasoft
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence (Implemented)
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Municipality of Burgas (Local)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Bulgaria. Local
- Description: This use case demonstrates the feasibility of installing cheap vibration sensors on test-bed water pipes, and used the resulting data to train appropriate Machine Learning models that automatically detect the presence of leakages with very high accuracy. The recorded data were pre-processed and then given for training to a Deep Learning model.
Government-to-Citizen (G2C) Award Category
Below are all the five shortlisted cases running for the G2C (government-to-citizen) award category. These highlight notable solutions envisioned for/implemented in the public sector that use emerging technologies to enhance public services for citizens (G2C). To see all the submitted cases, go to the section below "All submitted cases".
Virtual Desktop of Digital Immediation: Bringing Justice closer to citizens through digitalisation
- Submitter organisation: Councilbox
- Technology and status: Blockchain. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Parliamentary Relations (Central)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. National
- Description: This solutions aims to bring Justice closer to citizens through digitalisation, to make it more inclusive, accessible and green, facilitating the holding of remote hearings with full legal security guarantees. By using Blockchain, the veracity of all events that occur between the beginning and the end of each process carried out in the Virtual Digital Immediation Desk (EVID) is guaranteed. At the end of June 2024, more than 370,000 virtual meetings having been held through the EVID.
Application of Generative AI to the Generalitat de Catalunya to facilitate citizens' understanding of legal texts
- Submitter organisation: CTTI
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: EADOP (Regional)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. Regional
- Description: Legal language is often a barrier that prevents citizens from easily understanding legal texts. To eliminate this obstacle, the Government makes available to users of the Legal Portal of Catalonia and to the general public the summaries of Catalan law rules in plain language obtained from generative artificial intelligence. These summaries are not legal advice but they are provided for informational purposes only.
EMi Emprego Intelixente (EMi Smart Employment)
- Submitter organisation: Consellería de Emprego, Comercio e Emigración. Xunta de Galicia
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Consellería de Emprego, Comercio e Emigración. Xunta de Galicia (Regional)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Spain. Regional
- Description: Emi (Smart employment) is an artificial intelligence and big data tool that helps the Galician Public Employment Service ’s offices to guide unemployed people towards the skills that the labour market requires, based on their abilities. The AI models make 6-month projections of contracts for a specific occupation for a chosen geographical area. In addition, they can calculate the probability of finding employment for individuals in 3, 6 and 12 months.
MitosLOD: Exporting Linked Open Data from the Greek National Registry of Administrative Public Services
- Submitter organisation: GRNET SA
- Technology and status: Semantic Web. Pilot
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: Ministry of Interior (Central)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Greece. National
- Description: The MitosLOD project aims to transform the Greek National Registry of Administrative Public Services (MITOS) into Linked Open Data (LOD) to significantly enhance transparency, efficiency, and accessibility of public services. By converting over 3,500 public service descriptions into a standardized, machine-readable format, MitosLOD seeks to simplify citizens' and businesses' interactions with government services.
LLM-powered tax inquiry chatbot for the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency
- Submitter organisation: Institute for Scientific Research in the Field of Computer Science (“INSAIT”) at Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
- Technology and status: Artificial Intelligence. Implemented
- Responsible Public Sector Organisation: National Revenue Agency, Ministry of Finance (Central)
- Geographical coverage and extent: Bulgaria. National
- Description: This project harnesses the power of BgGPT, a state-of-the-art open-source LLM (large language model) trained on an extensive, meticulously curated dataset of Bulgarian text, and is one of the first government-led initiatives of its kind. It capitalises on two recent breakthrough AI technologies: i) Large Language Models (LLMs) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), that enhances LLMs by providing them with task-specific knowledge, such as the tax code.
