Latvia's State Audit Office AI Review — 17% of State Institutions Use AI, 55% Have No Plan, and Nobody Tracks Results

In May 2025 the State Audit Office of Latvia (Valsts kontrole) published a short fact-finding review of how AI is used across state administration, based on a survey of 83 state institutions. It is explicitly a collection of facts, not a formal audit with conclusions.
The review found that 17% of institutions already use AI solutions, 22% plan to, and 55% have no clear plan. Of those already using AI, 41% report higher productivity (self-reported). Only 18% had assessed the possibilities of using AI, and 28% plan to include AI goals in strategic documents. Current uses include document translation, information search, data analysis and customer-service virtual assistants.
The Office found no single strategy for developing and safely using AI in state administration, no common terminology, no mechanism to track the costs and results of AI investments, no national data strategy yet (one is being drafted by the Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development) and a shortage of highly qualified AI specialists. It names a single strategy, clear coordinating responsibility, a common risk-management approach and transparent accounting of AI investments as essential.
The case is useful as a baseline-and-gap diagnosis for small states; its limits are that the productivity figures are self-reported and no outcome data on individual systems is published. A later joint review by 12 supreme audit institutions placed Latvia at a similar stage to peer countries.

Read the full analysis: https://lrvk.gov.lv/en/news/artificial-intelligence-in-state-administration-must-be-developed-more-purposefully