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Good practice Imported

Vatican City State Issues Governorate-Wide Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence

Holy See · Vatican City · See the Holy See profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 74% 47/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Effective 1 January 2025, Vatican City State's Governorate issued its first AI rules — Decree n. DCCII — covering every civil department, from admin and health to police and courts, requiring labelled AI content and organisational-only judicial AI use.

Vatican City State Issues Governorate-Wide Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence

Details

Promoter
Governorate of Vatican City State
Period
2025-
Keywords
public administration, AI governance, regulatory policy

Context

The Governorate of Vatican City State — the body running the sovereign territory's civil administration — sought to set ground rules for AI use across its workforce ahead of the EU AI Act's broader European rollout.

Activities

The Governorate issued Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence under Decree n. DCCII, effective 1 January 2025, applying across administration and HR, the Vatican Museums, gardening and refuse services, the fire brigade and gendarmerie, the post office, the health service and pharmacy, and the Vatican's court system, plus third-party suppliers and temporary contractors. Principles include that AI must serve, not replace, human beings; must not produce discriminatory or rights-violating automated decisions; and that AI-generated content must be labelled 'IA'. Judicial offices may use AI only for 'organisation and simplification' of research and casework, not for decisions.

Results

The guidelines direct the President of the Governorate's office to establish a five-person AI commission chaired by the Secretary-General, describing the document as a 'compass' ahead of further laws and implementing regulations still to come.

Conclusions

As a brand-new regulatory framework rather than a deployed AI service, there are no operational metrics yet, and independent legal commentary notes much operational detail is left to yet-to-be-published implementing regulations.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Short (< 1 year)
Staffing & skills
Five-person AI commission chaired by the Secretary-General of the Governorate

Conditions for success

  • Explicit carve-out restricting judicial AI use to 'organisation and simplification' rather than decisions
  • Mandatory 'IA' labelling requirement for AI-generated content to distinguish it from human work

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