The new edition of the Postgraduate in Open Government and Digital Transformation in the Local World started with the session entitled “Digital Innovation to Transform the Administration”, given by Miquel Estapé, managing director of the AOC. The session brought together twenty professionals from different administrations and fields of work to reflect on a fundamental question: what it means to govern and manage public services in the midst of the digital revolution.
The presentation went beyond emerging technologies. It raised the need to distinguish between digitalization and transformation, analyzed the growing impact of data and artificial intelligence and argued that the main challenge for administrations is not technological but organizational. In a context in which the vast majority of local entities do not have the size or the resources necessary to face challenges such as innovation, cybersecurity or AI on their own, the cooperation and shared services model becomes an essential piece to ensure that any administration, regardless of its size, can offer quality digital services to citizens.
A classroom that reflects the complexity of the public sector
The session served to kick off a new edition of one of the benchmark training programs in digital transformation and open government in the local world, which this year reaches its ninth edition.
The classroom is made up of around twenty professionals from 12 different institutions in the Barcelona and Girona regions. The majority work in local administration, but professionals from the Generalitat de Catalunya, the AOC and the private sector also participate. This institutional diversity is complemented by very diverse academic and professional profiles, from organization and administrative management to open government, communication, electronic administration and data.
This heterogeneity is especially relevant because digital transformation is no longer the exclusive responsibility of technology departments. Today, it affects all areas of the organization and requires multidisciplinary teams capable of working in a transversal manner.
We are experiencing a revolution comparable to the great transformations of history
One of the central messages of the session was to place the current process of digitalization in a broader historical perspective. Just as the printing press, the industrial revolution or the Internet profoundly transformed society, data, algorithms and artificial intelligence are redefining the way we work, make decisions and relate to public services. This transformation is already visible in sectors such as health, transport or tourism. It is also visible in public management. The question is no longer whether the digital revolution will reach administrations, but how they will adapt to it and what role they want to play in this new environment.
Digitizing is not transforming
The session insisted on a fundamental idea: digitizing and transforming are not synonymous. As Miquel Estapé explained, digitizing means making existing processes electronic, while transforming involves rethinking public services to improve them substantially.
This difference is especially important in the public sector. Catalonia has highly digitalized administrations in areas such as electronic invoicing, interoperability or digital processing. However, current challenges require going beyond the simple replacement of paper with screens.
The goal is to build more efficient, more agile, more open, more inclusive and more people-centered administrations. Administrations capable of using data to make better decisions, automate low-value-added tasks and offer personalized or even proactive services.
Artificial intelligence accelerates a change that is already here
Another of the session's focuses was the impact of artificial intelligence.
Far from presenting it as a futuristic technology, the presentation highlighted that AI is already part of everyday life and many professional tools. From recommendation systems to assistants capable of writing, summarizing, translating or searching for information, AI-based applications are changing the way knowledge is generated and managed.
However, the reflection was not focused on technology per se. The key debate is how to take advantage of these capabilities to solve real public problems: reducing administrative burdens, improving services, personalizing citizen care or making better-informed decisions.
The challenge is not technological: it is one of scale and capacity
Probably one of the most relevant ideas for the local world was the realization that most administrations do not have the necessary resources to face the challenges posed by digital transformation, cybersecurity, data management or artificial intelligence alone.
As was explained during the session, nearly 90% of local entities do not have the size or capacity to lead these processes individually.
This is precisely where the model of shared digital public infrastructures promoted by the AOC makes sense. When a solution is designed, developed and maintained once for all public entities, any municipality can access capabilities that would be unattainable if it had to deal with them alone. A small municipality can have the same guarantees and opportunities as a large administration without multiplying costs or efforts.
Institutional cooperation is no longer just a working formula and becomes a necessary condition to make the country's digital transformation viable.
Train today the people who will lead tomorrow's change
The session concluded with an idea that runs through the entire training program: technology is important, but people remain the determining factor.
Digital transformation is a long-term process that requires leadership, adaptability, collaboration and continuous learning. Training professionals capable of understanding this context, assessing the real impact of innovations and putting people's needs at the center is a strategic investment for the entire Catalan public sector.
Catalonia is facing a new stage marked by artificial intelligence, European digital identity, data sovereignty and increasingly personalized public services. Faced with these challenges, the model based on sharing knowledge, data and common solutions continues to be one of the most powerful tools so that all administrations advance at the same pace and no one is left behind.
The Postgraduate
The Postgraduate Course, which started on September 25 in Girona, will continue until June 12, combining online sessions on Wednesday afternoons, with face-to-face sessions in Barcelona and Girona.
