AI Watch Road to the adoption of Artificial Intelligence by the Public Sector: A Handbook for Policymakers, Public Administrations and Relevant Stakeholders

This handbook is developed in the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Watch, as the first endeavor at European level outlining actionable guidelines to promote the adoption of safe, lawful, inclusive and trustworthy AI by public sector administrations in the EU. The purpose of this handbook is threefold: i) Present an updated state of play of AI approaches applied by the public sector in Europe, including encountered benefits and criticalities; ii) Identify key common issues to be addressed by the relevant stakeholders both, at policy and operational levels, as well as at different governance levels, going from international organizations, to national, regional and local administration levels; iii) Provide policy makers and interest operational parties and practitioners with a set of recommendations to address identified areas of intervention to promote the adoption of AI by the public sector in the Europe. The recommendations and actions included in this handbook build upon a two-years analysis of public sector national strategies and approaches throughout Europe, and draws on iterative feedback from stakeholders’ representatives. This handbook intends to act as a multi-level and multidimensional actionable plan by providing 16 recommendations clustered in four areas of intervention, accompanied by over fifty actions set out to foster the adoption of citizen-centric AI in the public sector, at different operational levels, as a safe and trustworthy driver to achieve common goals in Europe.