Estonia moves to develop new cross-government, AI-powered data management asset

Nearly 10 years into exploring and applying artificial intelligence to enhance public services, Estonia’s leadership is getting set to deploy a new cross-government, AI-enabled data management tool designed to expand citizens’ access to federal information and resources.

“I believe that we will have pieces of it working this year, and then we’re going to just implement and improve it as we go,” Estonia’s ambassador to the U.S. Kristjan Prikk told DefenseScoop on Thursday. 

He shared lessons learned from his fully-digitized government’s approach and new details on the vision for that forthcoming platform in an onstage discussion and interview on the sidelines of AITalks on Thursday. 

The Baltic nation currently has a population of around 1.3 million people. Since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Estonia has been famously intentional about harnessing technology to build a transparent and efficient government. 

“We had to start from scratch, and [having] limited resources is something that really triggers innovation,” Prikk noted. “We’re forward leaning in all things digital, and I think our society has developed a strong appetite — if not hunger — for digital services.”

There are hundreds of AI use cases across Estonia’s government agencies at this point. Now, officials are moving to launch and iterate on what the ambassador said will be a searchable, cross-government AI-based data management tool.

“We are making a conscious effort to make the data available from different government agencies across the board so that it’s searchable and that it’s usable. After all, me as a citizen, I don’t care whether it’s the Health and Human Services, whether it’s through Veterans or some other agency,” Prikk said. “It’s all about data. It’s about quality, but also data accessibility.”

Implementing a digital-first federal foundation has also benefitted the country’s national security and economy, in his view. According to Prikk, Estonia has created more unicorns — or privately held startups valued at more than $1 billion — per capita than any other country in the world, besides Israel.

AI and other emerging technologies have also helped the nation counter contemporary threats. Estonia shares an 183-mile border — and a complex, challenging history — with Russia.

“My own kind of motto or understanding is that whatever we lack in size, we can compensate for by using data smarter. So, that’s what we do,” Prikk said.

“We know that digital-first kind of brings also some vulnerabilities, but then again, we don’t have a choice. And I believe that if we are consciously digital — if we consciously use it all while keeping security in the core of the mission rather than afterthought — we are also better not only in protecting ourselves, but also understanding those vulnerabilities,” he told DefenseScoop.