IT Company Head: Shrinking Population Means Latvia Must Consider a Smaller Public Administration
Edžus Žeiris, director of IT company "Dativa," said on a TV24 program that as Latvia's population and workforce shrink, the country must consider reducing its public administration and shifting some functions to automation and artificial intelligence. He noted that state registry data are already good enough to support such solutions.
Edžus Žeiris, director of the IT company "Dativa," said on TV24's program "Nacionālo interešu klubs" that as Latvia's population and workforce continue to decline, the current model of public administration cannot be maintained long-term with the same number of employees. He suggested that the scale of public administration could be significantly reduced in the future.
Room for automation
Žeiris explained that automation and robotics already allow many functions previously requiring human involvement to be taken over by technology. This applies to customer service as well as to various services provided by state and municipal institutions.
According to him, Latvia does not lack the data needed for this shift. Information held in state registries is, in many cases, already of sufficient quality to allow technology, including artificial intelligence, to provide services to residents without the usual involvement of a civil servant.
Self-service kiosks
As one of the simplest solutions, Žeiris pointed to setting up self-service options at state and municipal institutions. Where a service cannot be obtained online, a self-service kiosk could be installed at the institution, allowing residents to complete the necessary action on their own.
