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In the current digital revolution environment, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has aroused enormous enthusiasm. Despite the promise of revolutionizing society, a recent article in the journal The Economist, (May 21, 2025) highlights that this initial optimism is giving way to a certain frustration in many organizations. The effective implementation of AI is not a road without obstacles, and many companies are experiencing what Gartner calls the “valley of disillusionment”, a post-euphoria stage where expectations collide with the complexity of reality.
This reality is particularly relevant for Public Administration. Despite the transformative potential of AI to significantly improve citizen services and optimize internal processes, we face significant challenges. Often, our data is fragmented and isolated in legacy IT systems, making it extremely difficult to effectively feed and train AI models.
Furthermore, attracting the technical talent needed for AI is a considerable challenge, as we compete with the private sector. And, of course, rigorous compliance with data protection regulations and legal certainty are a non-negotiable priority that we do not always know how to apply to highly complex and uncertain innovative solutions. However, protecting the institutional brand and minimizing the risk of bias errors or sensitive data exposure are constant concerns.
At the AOC, we are fully aware that implementing AI in the public sector requires a clear vision of public value generation and a gradual, but sustained, process of experimentation and learning. The current priority is not to apply the latest, most powerful AI model – which changes weekly – but to focus on finding more useful and pragmatic ways to use this technology in our day-to-day lives.
This involves drastically improving the management and quality of our data, continuously training our teams in new digital skills, and establishing robust ethical and legal frameworks that provide us with security and trust.
AI as a Service Solutions
At the AOC we are starting to build a shared public infrastructure to offer AI as a Service solutions. Our goal is to empower all administrations in Catalonia, especially local entities with limited resources, so that they can fully take advantage of this opportunity.
For example, we have implemented a chatbot powered by Generative AI that helps 200.000 citizens a year obtain a digital identity, submit electronic forms, access electronic notifications and claim electronic invoices.