Vatican City State Issues Governorate-Wide Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence

The Governorate of Vatican City State — the body that runs the sovereign territory's civil administration, distinct from the Holy See's religious offices — issued its first regulation of artificial intelligence, Guidelines on Artificial Intelligence under Decree n. DCCII, effective 1 January 2025.
The guidelines apply across the Governorate's workforce: administration and human resources, the Vatican Museums, gardening and refuse services, the fire brigade and gendarmerie (police), the post office, the health service and pharmacy, and the Vatican's own court system, as well as third-party suppliers and temporary contractors. They set out principles — that AI must serve and not replace human beings, must not produce discriminatory or rights-violating automated decisions, and that AI-generated content must be labelled 'IA' to distinguish it from human work — while leaving most offices free to adopt AI to streamline routine tasks. The judicial offices are the exception: they may use AI only 'for the organisation and simplification' of research and casework, not for decisions.
To oversee implementation, the guidelines direct the President of the Governorate's office to establish a five-person AI commission chaired by the Secretary-General, and describe the document itself as a 'compass' ahead of further laws and implementing regulations still to come. Separately, in May 2026 Pope Leo XIV created an inter-dicasterial commission on AI spanning four Vatican dicasteries and three pontifical academies — a Holy See body concerned with the Church's broader doctrinal and ethical response to AI, distinct from the Governorate's day-to-day staff rules.
As a brand-new regulatory framework rather than a deployed AI service, there are no operational metrics yet — no data on how many departments have adopted AI tools, how the labelling rule is enforced, or how the planned commission functions in practice — and independent legal commentary (e.g. IPKat) notes that much of the operational detail is left to the yet-to-be-published implementing regulations.

Read the full analysis: https://www.vaticanstate.va/en/news/1301-the-governorate-of-vatican-city-state-s-guidelines-on-artificial-intelligence.html