evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice

Anansi — Trinidad and Tobago's national AI assistant for citizen access to government services across 32 ministries

Trinidad and Tobago · Port of Spain · See the Trinidad and Tobago profile

Launched in August 2025, Anansi is Trinidad and Tobago's national AI assistant connecting 32 ministries and 7,000+ FAQs. Built by iGovTT under MPAAI — one of the world's first dedicated AI cabinet ministries — it received 88% positive feedback from 600+ surveyed users and 93% sat

32 ministries
Ministries/agencies connected (at launch)
7,000+ FAQs
FAQs indexed (at launch)
3,000+ visits
Visits within days of launch (days after 5 Aug 2025 launch)
635 queries
Citizen queries handled within days of launch (days after 5 Aug 2025 launch)
88 %
Positive feedback from surveyed users (launch survey, 600+ users)
93 %
Early satisfaction survey approval (launch)
15,000+ tickets
ttconnect agent-resolved tickets (cumulative)
97 %
ttconnect agent satisfaction rating (cumulative)
45 %
Citizens reporting confusing government websites (pre-launch survey) (pre-launch national survey)
30 %
Citizens reporting long wait times (pre-launch survey) (pre-launch national survey)
3 million EUR
EU grant for digital transformation (n/a)
50 million USD
CAF loan for digital infrastructure (n/a)

Details

Maturity
Pilot
Promoter
iGovTT / Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence (MPAAI)
Period
2025–present
Keywords
digital government, citizen services, e-government, conversational AI

Context

A national survey conducted before launch found 45% of citizens had found government websites confusing and 30% reported long wait times — the service gap Anansi targets.

Objectives

Anansi consolidates knowledge from 32 government ministries, departments and agencies into a single AI assistant, aiming to simplify citizen access to government services.

Activities

Launched 5 August 2025 by iGovTT under the newly created Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence (MPAAI, established May 2025), the system indexes 7,000+ FAQs and is accessible via the anansi.tt portal or the ttconnect gateway, with appointment booking support. Unresolved queries are escalated to live ttconnect agents.

Results

Within days of launch, Anansi received over 3,000 visits and handled 635 citizen queries. Of 600+ citizens surveyed at launch, 88% gave positive feedback and said they would use the system again; an early satisfaction survey reported 93% approval. ttconnect agents have collectively resolved 15,000+ tickets with a 97% satisfaction rating.

Conclusions

T&T's creation of a dedicated AI cabinet ministry (MPAAI) is a notable institutional commitment, backed by a EUR 3 million EU grant combined with a US$50 million CAF loan for broader digital infrastructure. However, as of mid-2026 Anansi has been live for under a year and satisfaction figures come from very small early samples, with no independent longitudinal evaluation published.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — Backed by a EUR 3 million EU grant combined with a US$50 million CAF loan for broader digital infrastructure (data centre, eID) supporting Anansi and related services; no Anansi-specific budget figure disclosed.
Time to results
Short (< 1 year) — MPAAI created May 2025; Anansi launched 5 August 2025.
Staffing & skills
iGovTT (build and operate), Ministry of Public Administration and Artificial Intelligence (MPAAI) — dedicated AI cabinet ministry, ttconnect live agents for escalated queries

Conditions for success

  • a dedicated cabinet-level AI ministry providing political ownership and budget
  • integration with existing ttconnect infrastructure (25,000+ public sector users)
  • a human escalation path to live agents for unresolved queries
  • EU/CAF-backed digital infrastructure investment (Tier-4 data centre, interoperable eID)

Common failure modes

  • satisfaction figures based on very small early samples (600+ users, days of data)
  • no independent longitudinal evaluation published as of mid-2026

Where it fits

Governance type
dedicated national AI cabinet ministry
Scale
national, 32 ministries
Income level
high-income

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Similar practices you may find useful