Latvia has great potential in the field of AI - LMT vice-president

RIGA - Latvia has a great potential in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), Ingmars Pukis, Vice President of Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) mobile operator, said Thursday at the conference "Digital Transformation in Public Administration and Involvement of Universities in its Implementation".

He indicated that artificial intelligence is currently on LMT's agenda, and the company is very hopeful about the involvement of public administration. Pukis said that AI is high on the agenda of the president, the Economics Ministry and the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development.

"Knowing that this tradition is quite aggressive, public administration loves digitalization, I believe that Latvia has a great potential [in the field of AI], because Europe does not look good, it is conservative and overregulated, and if Latvia could regulate [the field of AI] a bit less, start with itself, its digital infrastructure... we, the industry, are ready to put out money in this.. to build practical applications [of AI], just like it was the case with 5G," said Pukis, adding that Latvia's digital infrastructure is "highly prepared" to introduce AI solutions.

The LMT vice-president noted that, based on the 2024 data of the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI), Latvia is one of Europe's leaders in making digital public services available to its citizens.

At the same time, he pointed out that "exporting information technology (IT) companies and the state administration are buying up all the available IT resources in Latvia, which means that a small or medium-sized company is left with practically nothing". "On the one hand, this is ridiculous, but on the other hand, it is worth thinking about sometimes, I feel a bit sorry, something should be done about it," said Pukis.

Commenting on ICT workers, Pukis pointed out that Latvia has a tradition of "producing executors". "We have a lot of 'bio-robots' who are paid huge salaries as IT specialists but do not produce huge added value," said Pukis.

He also drew attention to the need for businesses and public administration to cooperate with universities, to support STEM (technology, engineering and mathematics) education.

At the same time, Pukis admitted that digitalization in public administration may not be as vital as reducing the number of procedures and laws. "I haven't heard of any government yet that is committed to reducing the number of laws," said the LMT vice-president.

Riga Technical University (RTU) is hosting the conference "Digital Transformation in Public Administration and Involvement of Universities in its Implementation" on Thursday to take the stock of progress on the digital transformation in Latvia's public administration.