The Government AI Readiness Index 2019: How is Europe Doing in Comparison to the Rest of the World

Over the past few months, Knowledge 4 All Foundation, a key partner in the HumaneAI project and the Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) initiative to advance AI in the Global South, partnered with Oxford Insights, an international public sector consultancy specialising in AI, and IDRC which prepared the second edition of the Government AI Readiness Index.

Western Europe dominates the top 20 places of the 2019 Government AI Readiness Index, as might be expected due to the strong economies of the majority of Western European nations. 11 of the top 20 governments in the rankings are Western European, with the top ranking government among this group being the UK (second globally), followed by Germany (third), and interestingly Finland (fifth) and Sweden (sixth), demonstrating that AI readiness is not necessarily exclusively dictated by economic might. Larger economies, such as France and Italy, lagged behind in eighth and fifteenth places respectively. The report also covers the Eastern European region.

The Index measures governments’ readiness for implementing AI in their internal operations and in public service delivery. It builds on the methodology that combines 11 input metrics to produce a composite score for OECD governments, grouped under four high-level clusters: governance; infrastructure and data; skills and education; and government and public services. The data is derived from a variety of resources.

This year’s index is more globally represented and expanded the scope to cover all UN countries. Having calculated scores for all 194 governments included in the report, we invited experts from each region to contribute commentary to help bring our findings to life with their insights and local knowledge.

References: Hannah Miller, Oxford Insight, attribution by AI4D, CC-BY 2.0., https://ai4d.ai/2019-government-ai-readiness-index/