Mohammedia – Albania has named an AI-bot called Diella as its first virtual minister, charging her with overseeing all public tenders to eliminate corruption and make government contracts transparent.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama introduced Diella (which means “sun” in Albanian) on Thursday as a virtual minister responsible for public procurement. The AI-generated system was previously a virtual assistant on the e-Albania platform.
This means Diella’s role has been upgraded as of September 2025 – she will now manage how government contracts are awarded in order to reduce bias, bribery, and political influence.
Before being given this cabinet-level position, Diella helped citizens interact with government services online.
She has been active since January 2025 via the e-Albania portal, where she assisted with things like document issuance and navigating bureaucracy.
Official records say she has processed tens of thousands of digital documents and hundreds of services, often via voice or digital interaction.
Diella’s new responsibilities are focused on public tenders: contracts the government gives to private companies for building, infrastructure, and other projects. Her job will involve assessing bids and awarding those contracts.
The idea is that an AI system will be less vulnerable to the kinds of corruption scandals that have long troubled Albania’s procurement process. Prime Minister Rama said during a speech unveiling his new cabinet that Diella will help make Albania “a country where public tenders are 100% free of corruption.”
One major goal is to improve transparency in how public money is spent. Albania hopes this move will address its reputation for weak governance and corruption, issues that have been obstacles to its bid to join the European Union.
A daring experiment
The government claims Diella will make administrative processes faster, more objective, and less influenced by human favoritism.
Tasters of that promise include making every public tender perfectly transparent and removing some decision-making powers gradually from human ministries to the AI minister.
Not everyone is convinced this approach will work smoothly. Some critics argue that giving a non-human a ministerial role may be unconstitutional. Others raise concerns about accountability, asking who will oversee Diella’s decisions and how the system can be protected from manipulation.
There is also public skepticism, with many questioning whether a digital system can truly eliminate corruption. Transparency will be key, as making Diella’s decisions, tender evaluations, and underlying code publicly accessible is likely to increase trust in the system.
Equally important is whether this reform actually reduces delays, lowers costs, and prevents corruption in real-world cases.
Diella represents a daring experiment in governance. If it succeeds, it could serve as a model for using AI to improve public administration.
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