{"id":194297,"date":"2025-06-18T11:46:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194297\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T11:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:46:15","slug":"ministers-set-out-plans-for-northern-ireland-office-of-ai-and-digital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/194297\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministers set out plans for Northern Ireland Office of AI and Digital"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ministers have set out bold ambitions for the Northern Ireland Executive\u2019s new Office of AI and Digital.<\/p>\n<p>The creation of the new entity was announced in the Programme for Government agreed by Stormont in February, which outlined that the digital unit will \u201csit alongside the Office of Science and Technology and work with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency and other data and digital leaders across the Northern Ireland Civil Service, to advise the executive\u201d on tech services and policy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"PublicTechnology.net logo\" class=\"inline-image inline-image--right-half\" height=\"102\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/pt_story_label.png\" width=\"200\"\/>The executive\u2019s leader, first minister Michelle O\u2019Neill, underscored the importance of the work to be undertaken by expert digital team<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence, we need to harness the potential of the technology, particularly when it comes to transforming public services,\u201d she said. \u201cOur lives, society and economy can be reshaped for the better with AI. The creation of the Office of AI and Digital will place us at the forefront of AI innovation as part of an economy that works for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The office will support the creation of a new national \u201cAI strategy and action plan\u201d for Northern Ireland, the executive indicated. Meanwhile, chief scientific and technology adviser\u00a0professor Helen McCarthy\u00a0will lead work on \u201cdeveloping a roadmap for AI adoption across government departments\u201d.\u00a0This implementation plan will be created with input from industry, academia \u2013 and departments themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The creation of the Office of AI and Digital was rubber-stamped at an event marking the launch of a new AI Collaboration Centre, jointly run by Queen\u2019s University and Ulster University.<\/p>\n<p>Appearing alongside O\u2019Neill at the event, Northern Ireland\u2019s deputy first minster Emma Little-Pengelly said: \u201cNorthern Ireland has the talent and the potential to be a world leader in responsible AI. Our AI and Digital Office will\u00a0play a transformational role in public sector delivery, ensuring we can deliver a modern service that meets the needs of our citizens.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are committed to doing everything we can to foster the digital skills required to meet the demands of the future economy. The office will play a key role as we harness advances in technology to deliver real benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ministers have set out bold ambitions for the Northern Ireland Executive\u2019s new Office of AI and Digital. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-194297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114704206019792442","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}