The AI Centre of Excellence is one of the central pieces of the national strategy to accelerate the responsible adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Public Sector.
Framed by the National Digital Strategy and the National Artificial Intelligence Agenda, and operating in the State Technological Reform Agency, its mission is to coordinate, develop, test and scale AI solutions for public services, avoiding the fragmentation of projects and promoting the reuse of technology between organizations.
Goals
The Centre aims to drive the digital transformation of the State through the responsible, ethical, secure, and transparent use of AI, for the benefit of citizens, businesses, and public sector organisations.
The Centre carries out three main tasks:
- Aligning the adoption of AI in the State with the National Artificial Intelligence Agenda, the National Digital Strategy and the European framework applicable to data and AI, including the AI Act.
- Development of AI solutions with a focus on viable, fast and replicable products, technically support projects promoted by public entities and ensure quality, safety, ethics and compliance criteria.
- Train public workers, create methodologies, standards, playbooks and knowledge hubs, and promote partnerships with academia, companies, startups and entities in the national and European innovation ecosystem.
Main features and innovations
This structure functions as a transversal coordination center, supporting public bodies in identifying use cases, developing solutions, defining good practices, risk assessment and project scalability. The approach is to develop once and reuse several times, especially in areas where processes are similar between entities.
Impact
The Centre envisions to act as a technical reference, a facilitator of practical adoption and a promoter of innovation with confidence, with the ambition to position Portugal as a European champion in the reliable, ethical and transparent adoption of AI in the public sector.
The expected impact is to promote simpler and more efficient public services, more informed decisions, greater technological reuse, reduction of duplications, better interoperability and reinforcement of digital sovereignty. By centralizing knowledge and technical capacity, the AI Centre of Excellence will be able to prevent public bodies from looking for isolated solutions to similar problems.
