AI Readiness Index in Bulgaria's Public Administration — a 6,254-Respondent Baseline That Scored the State 45/100 and Was Replicated in Croatia and Romania

In April-May 2025 (22 April-9 May) the Institute of Public Administration ran Bulgaria's first national AI readiness survey of the civil service. 6,254 staff responded, and the IPA reports that the respondent profile closely matches the Administrative Register and the annual State of the Administration report. The index combines organisational readiness (policies, infrastructure, practices, management attitudes; weighted 65%) with individual capacity (knowledge and skills; weighted 35%).
The overall score is 45 out of 100, in the 'building capacity' band (40-64). Weaknesses: only 18% of respondents report any internal AI policy or vision, 11% internal guidelines or ethics rules, about 10% a dedicated budget; only 26% think IT infrastructure is sufficient; roughly 80% of administrations do not use AI even experimentally and only about 3% integrate it regularly. Most staff are unfamiliar with the EU AI Act. Strengths: 71% say they need specialised AI training, 31% report a positive institutional attitude, and nearly half of administrations encourage new technologies.
The IPA says the exercise needed a three-person team, roughly 120-150 person-hours and existing infrastructure, with no external funding. The Interreg Europe good-practice profile reports 47 institutional reports and 3,074 civil servants completing follow-up IPA training (an IPA-reported figure), and that Croatia and Romania replicated the method. Caveats: the data is anonymous self-assessment, and the Interreg profile quotes 49/100 whereas the IPA report itself states 45; this entry uses the report's figure. A second 2026 wave was still being analysed, so change over time is not yet shown.

Read the full analysis: https://www.ipa.government.bg/en/node/2492