Albania appoints first AI minister in the world
Albania became the first in the world to appoint a virtual minister based on artificial intelligence (photo: Getty Images)
Albania has become the first country in the world to have a minister created from code and algorithms. The new virtual official was given the name Diella (translated from Albanian as "sunlight"). According to Prime Minister Edi Rama, she will be responsible for the entire public procurement process, Politico reported.
Diella – the first robot in the government
Rama had hinted back in the summer that the country might one day get a digital minister or even a prime minister based on AI. However, few expected this to happen so quickly.
On Thursday, at a Socialist Party gathering in Tirana where the Prime Minister announced government reshuffles, he presented Diella – the first robot in the government.
"Diella is the first member not physically present, but virtually created by artificial intelligence," Rama said.
According to him, decisions on tenders will now be made outside the ministries – exclusively by this digital system, which is supposed to make the process "100 percent incorruptible and where every public fund that goes through the tender procedure is 100 percent legible."
Diella is already familiar to Albanians: she works on the e-Albania platform, through which citizens receive almost all public services online. She has an avatar in the image of a young woman in national dress. The new virtual minister will also evaluate tenders and will be able to "hire talents here from all over the world," breaking down barriers of bureaucracy.
Fight against corruption and EU plans
For many years, Albania has faced corruption in the field of public procurement, and the European Union regularly pointed this out in rule-of-law reports. Rama, re-elected for a fourth term in May 2025, has promised to bring the country into the EU by 2030.
