As Artificial Intelligence, AI tools become increasingly accessible, the country’s civil service is also beginning to embrace AI for digital governance. Civil servants from across ministries attended a two-day workshop on generative artificial intelligence, which ended yesterday. The workshop explored ways to make governance faster, smarter, and more transparent using AI tools.
Through hands-on activities and interactive sessions, the programme introduced 34 civil servants to the fundamentals of generative AI and demonstrated its real-world applications in government services.
The workshop also covered media and information literacy, encouraging civil servants to critically assess AI-generated content before it influences policy or public messaging.
“The training on generative AI for the Bhutanese civil servants is very timely. This is because the training will enable improving workplace efficiency, it will also enable data-driven decision-making, and help in public service delivery. With such platforms provided to civil servants, I believe that we will be able to realise the full potential of artificial intelligence,” said Tshering Gyeltshen, one of the participants.
With national guidelines already in place for responsible use of AI, the GovTech Agency sees the workshop as a key step in helping officials understand and apply these principles in their daily work.
“Through this training, we will be able to understand the generative AI guideline effectively, as this session consists of various hands-on activities that help us understand how to use Gen-AI tools effectively and ethically, just as how our Gen-AI guideline recommends the civil service,” said Karma Yangzom, an Assistant ICT Officer with GovTech Agency.
The training was organised by the Bhutan Media Foundation and UNESCO as part of UNESCO’s global SPARK-AI Alliance, which helps governments build AI skills in the public sector.
According to the organisers, the country currently ranks below the South and Central Asia regional average in national preparedness for AI in governance. They believe that embracing AI is not just an option but a necessity, a key to modernising governance and delivering better public services.
Trainer Dr. Surabhi Pandey, said “Providing services in the agriculture, healthcare sector, banking, taxation, and many more services can be automated and optimised to provide a better citizen-centric service delivery. I think AI has the potential to provide better services to the citizen of a nation.”
With nearly 30,000 civil servants in the country, the organisers hope this workshop will spark a clearer, more unified vision of how generative AI can transform governance in Bhutan.
Karma Samten Wangda
Edited by Phub Gyem
