Only 3 percent officials have advanced knowledge of AI. What is the main obstacle?

Research by the Ministry of Digitization has shown that the vast majority of officials (approx. 84%) describe their knowledge of artificial intelligence as basic or intermediate, and only 3%. as advanced. However, they want to expand their competences in this area and would be happy to participate in training on this topic. Public administration employees emphasized that key competencies in this sector include: data management and cybersecurity, but also legal risk management – indicates a study by Google Cloud Polska and the Polish Development Fund (PFR).

According to research by the Ministry of Digitization conducted this year on over 8,000. officials show that 82 percent of them consider the lack of knowledge and skills to be an important or very important obstacle to the implementation of AI. Other barriers included the lack of clear regulations (almost 76%), lack of financial resources (73%), technical barriers (69%) and resistance to changes (65.6%).

The ministry's data quoted in the report “Map of AI competences in Poland. Needs and directions of development” also indicate that at the same time almost 60 percent officials admit that their knowledge of AI is basic, and only 3 percent – that high. However, less than 13 percent declares lack of knowledge about artificial intelligence. Only one in five participated in training in this area in the last two years, although over 93 percent declares that he would like to improve his competences in the use of AI in public administration.

– Competency gaps in public administration are at the level of the use of artificial intelligence, i.e. ideas in what processes they can be used, the availability of artificial intelligence tools and how the use of artificial intelligence in offices could be regulated in terms of governance, practical, legal and ethical applications – Magda Gajownik de Vries from the Polish Development Fund tells the Newseria agency. – Our results are very similar for entrepreneurs, the SME sector and large companies. We see that entrepreneurs also struggle with similar issues. Public administration does not have access to these tools and does not know how to use them, but based on surveys we have seen that there is great motivation to use AI. This is the opposite trend than in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Google Cloud Polska and PFR study also indicates that challenges related to obtaining financing, regulatory uncertainty and organizational difficulties are common to all surveyed groups, both administration and SMEs, large companies and start-ups. The administration additionally struggles with systemic limitations in public procurement procedures and ineffective data exchange between institutions.

Administration especially needs fundamental knowledge of AI

When asked about key competencies in the field of AI, officials indicated that the administration particularly needs them in terms of fundamental knowledge of AI, data management and cybersecurity, as well as legal risk management and shaping an organizational culture conducive to the implementation of innovations. Among the important managerial competencies, respondents mentioned the ability to indicate potential benefits of AI and the business justification for these projects. In the legal and ethical area, officials placed the greatest emphasis on legal risk management, which was assessed as a critical competence.

– In local governments, it would be necessary to examine the processes that are the most repeatable, where there is the largest volume of clients and matters that could be relieved by artificial intelligence. It would be necessary to map the processes and see which points will be key to their improvement. Then, it would be necessary to regulate the use of artificial intelligence by writing rules, implementing governance, who to grant a license to, in what cases local government officials can use artificial intelligence and whether they want to inform their clients about its use when responding to letters. Only then should we move on to technology – says the PFR expert.

As he emphasizes, local government officials are willing to use artificial intelligence and if they do it at work today, they use private devices. Regulating the issue of AI in offices could result in the use of appropriate tools and safe equipment.

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