On 11 September 2025, Albania took a decision that left the world stunned. Defying conventional political wisdom, the Albanian government appointed an Artificial Intelligence system named Diell as the country’s Public Procurement Minister. In an unprecedented move, this digital administrator identified 17 suspicious government contracts within just 48 hours, annulled three of them, and made all procurement data publicly available in real time through an interactive dashboard. This was not a science fiction scenario, nor an isolated experiment — it was a powerful demonstration of how AI could redefine governance, transparency, and public accountability.
While Albania is a small nation with limited resources, its bold experiment holds a significant lesson for India — one of the world’s largest democracies facing enormous governance challenges. With a population of 1.4 billion and a sprawling bureaucracy often criticised for inefficiency, delays, and corruption, India stands at a crossroads. The need for bold, systemic reform in public administration has never been greater. Albania’s decision shines a spotlight on the potential of Artificial Intelligence not as a futuristic luxury but as a pragmatic tool that can transform how governments function.
Across the globe, governments are increasingly harnessing AI to improve governance. Singapore’s chatbot Ask Jamie handles over five million public enquiries annually across more than 70 government websites, drastically reducing response time and human workload. Estonia, already a digital governance pioneer, uses AI-driven platforms for digital identity cards, e-medical records, and e-voting systems, enabling efficient, secure, and accessible services for all citizens. Canada has integrated AI into tax audits, helping authorities recover billions of dollars in lost revenue while increasing the detection of tax fraud by 35 per cent. Japan employs AI to predict earthquakes and accelerate rescue operations, safeguarding lives in one of the world’s most disaster-prone regions. Brazil’s São Paulo has cut traffic congestion by 20 per cent using AI-powered traffic systems, while South Korea reduced waste collection costs by 43 per cent through AI-managed waste disposal strategies. In Dubai, AI is used to monitor road conditions and forecast maintenance needs, ensuring infrastructure reliability. Meanwhile, in the United States, AI helps detect welfare fraud, saving up to 521 billion dollars annually.
These are not isolated pilot projects or academic studies. They are real-world applications proving that intelligent machines can deliver faster, more transparent, and more efficient governance than traditional bureaucratic methods. India has already begun its journey towards digital governance with significant initiatives like Aadhaar, Digital India, and the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN). However, the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in governance remains scattered and tentative. Projects are often small-scale, fragmented, or stuck in pilot phases. The challenge is not technological incapability but a lack of political will, vision, and systemic strategy.
Public procurement in India, for instance, is notorious for corruption, delays, and opaque processes. Billions of rupees are siphoned off through irregular contracts, inflated costs, and bureaucratic loopholes. Albania’s experiment shows that assigning rule-based procurement oversight to an impartial AI system can automatically detect anomalies, flag suspicious deals, and recommend annulments without fear of political pressure or personal interests.
Moreover, transparency is a pillar of good governance. By publishing real-time procurement data in an accessible dashboard, Albania empowered its citizens, media, and civil society to participate actively in monitoring government decisions. India must learn from this by making data-driven governance more open and participatory, rather than buried in inaccessible government portals or hidden under the pretext of confidentiality. The potential for efficiency gains is another critical lesson. Manual decision-making in India’s bureaucracy leads to unnecessary delays, whether in welfare disbursement, tax collection, or infrastructure approvals. An AI-based system can analyse vast amounts of data in seconds, automatically applying predefined rules to make decisions swiftly. This not only saves time but also ensures consistency and reduces opportunities for discretionary abuse.
Cost is another factor where AI governance holds an edge. India spends thousands of crores of rupees annually on running its administrative apparatus. An AI system, once designed and implemented, operates at a fraction of the long-term costs associated with human labour, absenteeism, and corruption. Canada’s success in tax audits proves that intelligent systems can also recover lost revenues, which in India’s case could mean additional resources for development. Disaster management is another area where India can gain from AI models. Japan’s success in earthquake prediction and rescue coordination demonstrates how technology can save lives. India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) should incorporate AI models to improve forecasting, pre-disaster planning, and real-time coordination during calamities like floods, cyclones, and earthquakes.
Policy action must begin now. The central government should develop a comprehensive National AI Governance Policy, focusing specifically on key areas such as public procurement, tax audits, welfare distribution, infrastructure monitoring, and disaster management. Clear data protection laws must be enacted to safeguard citizen information. Civil servants should receive training on how to work with AI systems, enabling them to transition into more strategic roles. Moreover, public-private partnerships can accelerate the development of scalable AI solutions while encouraging innovation. India’s thriving tech ecosystem, including start-ups and established IT giants, should be brought into the fold, contributing expertise and developing practical solutions for governance challenges.
The time for small, isolated AI projects is over. India needs systemic change. Albania’s bold decision to hand over a ministerial role to AI is not an impractical experiment but a wake-up call. It is a statement that rule-based governance tasks — free from political bias and human inefficiencies — can and should be automated for the public good. If India continues to cling to outdated bureaucratic methods, it risks falling further behind in global governance reforms. The Albanian example proves that embracing Artificial Intelligence is not a matter of technological advancement alone; it is a moral imperative to ensure better governance, greater transparency, and improved service delivery for citizens.
The future of governance does not belong to politics or bureaucracy alone; it belongs to intelligent systems that work for people without prejudice or delay. Albania has already shown the way. It is time for India to follow the path of innovation, responsibility, and transparency.
The writer is professor at Centre For South Asian Studies, School of International Studies & Social Sciences, Pondicherry Central University