"A science and a set of computational techniques that are inspired by the way in which human beings use their nervous system and their body to feel, learn, reason and act", this is the definition given by Stanford University to the most promising technology of our time: artificial intelligence (AI).

In the form of a voice assistant on smartphones or of suggestions about movies to watch or about items to buy, artificial intelligence is already beginning to enter people's daily lives. Its potential is however much wider. The AI is in fact destined to play an increasingly important role in society and to radically change the world economy, both in the private sector and in the public sector, so much that some states like the United Arab Emirates have dedicated an entire Ministry to it.

In the field of public services, the AI ​​could, for example, allow to automate repetitive processes or manage large amounts of data effectively, combining information from different datasets, thus enhancing the immense information assets of the PA.

Thanks to this technology, it would be also possible to design artificial teaching assistants able to provide personalized training to employees, improving the professional growth, career management and internal organization of the different entities of the public sector.

But is the Italian public administration ready for this change?

In September of last year, AgId, the National Agency for Digital Italy, created a task force and an observatory for the study of the AI applications ​​more able to simplify the life of citizens. The work carried out during this period produced the White Paper: "Artificial Intelligence at the service of the citizen", the first document addressed to public administrations providing indications on how to best exploit the opportunities offered by the AI, limiting criticalities and problem, and develop effective public services for citizens. The investment made by AgID for the realization of these initiatives was accompanied by a further injection of capital of 5 million euros for the development of pilot projects directed to the Public Administrations that will collaborate with the Agency in identifying such interventions.

In Italy, AI technological developments are at an early stage, but the MEF Information and Innovation Systems Directorate is already actively involved. As part of the new international research project PoSeID-on, for example, the Directorate will create a Dashboard for the protection of personal data that, thanks to machine learning tools, will automatically and autonomously allow to monitor the potential risks for the privacy of citizens and notify the users of possible privacy threats when they exchange their data.

Other virtuous public administrations are also working on artificial intelligence. Some projects have already been launched in this area: among the main initiatives we find, for example, "Borbot", the virtual assistant of the National Museum of the Royal Palace of Caserta which uses machine learning algorithms to answer the user requests, and the "Pierino" project, a platform for the automatic analysis of linguistic data that was used by the Ministry of Education to analyze the data collected in the public consultation of the "La buona scuola" plan and which allowed to process and synthesize 270 thousand teachers’ comments in less than a week.

The PA is thus responding positively to this new challenge and stands, despite the expectations, as a driving force for the digital transformation of the country.