Digital Government Podcast

What happens when AI agents start making decisions, managing workflows and interacting with public services, and are governments ready for the shift?

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, Federico Plantera brings together Luukas Ilves, co-founder of The Agentic State initiative and former Chief Information Officer of the Estonian government, and Piret Hirv, Head of the Data Management and AI Competence Centre at eGA, to discuss how agentic AI could transform public administration.

They explore the shift from process-based automation to outcome-driven government, the growing pressure from AI agents interacting with public services, and the challenges of accountability across institutions. The conversation also examines why digital identity, data governance and cybersecurity are essential for managing AI agents, and why governments must invest in the less visible foundations of digital transformation before they can realise its benefits.

Tune in to discover why governments can no longer afford to ignore agentic AI, and what it takes to prepare public administration for a future where machines do more than follow instructions.

This podcast was produced as part of the project “AI-ready Municipalities”, with financial assistance from the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument. The information and views set out herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union or its institutions.

What does it take to build military cyber defence capacity from the ground up, and how can international assistance create capabilities that last?

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, Merle Maigre, Head of Cybersecurity at the eGA, speaks with senior cybersecurity expert Pirit Pikker and senior technical cybersecurity expert Janis Janusjavics about their experience implementing European Peace Facility cyber defence projects in Ukraine and Moldova.

They explore the building blocks of effective cyber defence, from trained personnel and foundational cyber hygiene to infrastructure monitoring and rehearsed incident response. The conversation also examines why trust comes before planning, how equipment deliveries and training need to work together, and why assistance must adapt to an organisation’s readiness and the realities of war.

Tune in to discover how people, technology and lasting partnerships come together to strengthen cyber defence.

This podcast was produced as part of the project “European Peace Facility Assistance on cyber defence in Moldova”, with financial assistance from the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument. The information and views set out herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union or its institutions.

As AI makes cyberattacks faster, cheaper and more widely accessible, how can governments keep essential services running and protect public trust?

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, Merle Maigre, Head of Cybersecurity at the eGA, speaks with Madis Tapupere, former CTO of the Estonian Government and now a tech management consultant, about the white paper National Cyber Resilience in the Age of AI: A Doctrine for Asymmetric Cyber Defence.

They explore what a state cannot afford to lose, how AI can help defenders respond at machine speed, and why cyber resilience requires cooperation across government and the private sector. Drawing on Estonia’s experience, the conversation also examines why clear, timely communication during a crisis matters as much as technical recovery. 

Tune in to discover what it takes to keep a digital state functioning and trusted in the age of AI.

At this year's Tallinn Cyber Diplomacy Summer School, one question kept coming up: how can international cyber agreements move beyond diplomatic language and translate into real action?

The question is particularly timely as the United Nations Global Mechanism prepares for its upcoming meeting in New York this July, an important milestone for the permanent UN process on responsible state behaviour in cyberspace.

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, recorded during the Summer School, Patryk Pawlak speaks with H.E. Ambassador Egriselda López, Chair of the UN Global Mechanism, about what comes next for cyber diplomacy at the United Nations. 

Together, they discuss how implementation can become more action-oriented, why capacity building is essential for meaningful ownership, and how governments, experts, and technical communities can work together to make the mechanism effective in practice.

Listen to the episode to learn why turning commitments into action matters now more than ever.

The last time Ott Velsberg appeared on this podcast was early 2022. Popular LLMs had not yet been released. The conversation was about how AI could support data-driven decision-making in government – a topic that felt, at the time, more prospective than operational.

Four years on, with Estonia counting over 220 public sector AI use cases and close to 60 million euros in estimated annual impact, the frame has shifted. So, it is now less about what AI in government could look like and more about what it has taken to get there.

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, Ott Velsberg, outgoing Chief Data Officer of the Estonian government and responsible for Estonia's AI policy, tells us about the path from strategy to working infrastructure. And the long institutional work that makes it possible to coexist with both consent-based data sharing and AI adoption at scale.

When governments across Europe try to modernise, the challenge is rarely that they lack ambition or resources. More often, what is missing is the space to think carefully before acting – to understand what the actual problem is, what has already been tried elsewhere, and who inside the administration will need to carry the change forward.

The European Union’s Technical Support Instrument (TSI) was built around exactly that gap: not funding, but structured expert support, delivered at the moment when a reform is still being designed.

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, recorded around Europe Day, we speak with Florian Hauser, Deputy Head of Unit for Public Administration at SG REFORM – the European Commission’s Task Force for reforms and investment – and with Hannes Astok, Executive Director of the e-Governance Academy (eGA), which has been working closely with the TSI across a growing portfolio of themes in recent years.

Explore the European Union’s approach to reform support and what it actually takes to make them work. Tune in!

Thirty years ago, Estonia launched Tiger Leap, a programme that put computers and internet in every school and, in many ways, laid the groundwork for a digital society what we have known to call e-Estonia. Today, the country is attempting something just as ambitious with artificial intelligence (AI) in education. But the conditions are different this time. 

When Tiger Leap started in 1996, neither the schools nor the students had the technology – everybody had to learn together. Now, the asymmetry runs the other way: the students have leaped, while the education system is catching up.

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, Ivo Visak, CEO of AI Leap (TI-Hüpe), the national programme integrating artificial intelligence into Estonian high schools, Visak makes the case for why treating AI in schools as an intervention rather than an experiment is the only responsible path forward.

Tune in to explore the Estonian path in implementing AI in education!

Governments are racing to adopt AI in public services. EU-funded projects show the pace is only accelerating. But this push raises a deeper question: what lies beneath? Too often, the answer is the same – weak or uneven digital foundations.

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) can help integrate and connect siloed systems into a coherent digital government platform. So, where does it stand globally, as an enabler of AI development? What makes it work? And why does it matter more than ever for AI adoption? We explored these questions on this episode of the Digital Government Podcast with Krisstina Rao, now at Co-Develop, and outgoing Research Fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at University College London (UCL), where she led the work on the Digital Public Infrastructure Map.

Listen now and explore what’s really powering AI-enabled public services behind the scenes!

This podcast and podcast blog were produced within the project “EU Commission Project (24ES06/24DE33): Supporting regional entrepreneurship through the adoption of innovative technologies, including AI, in public services” with the financial assistance of the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument. The views expressed by the speakers in the project video are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union.

Leadership in the public sector has always demanded resilience. This is best exemplified by three elements: 1) the ability to hold long-term vision steady while reacting to short-term pressures, 2) to build consensus across institutions that do not naturally cooperate, and 3) to keep an organisation moving when the ground shifts beneath it. Digital transformation has sharpened all of these demands. The leaders steering this process need more than technical knowledge. They need self-awareness, the capacity to build the team and trust it, and the judgment to know when a crisis is also an opportunity.

In this episode of the Digital Government Podcast, hosted by Merle Maigre, Head of Cybersecurity at e-Governance Academy, we hear from Taimar Peterkop – former State Secretary of Estonia, former Director General of the Information System Authority, and now Senior Expert at the e-Governance Academy. Drawing on over two decades at some of Estonia's most consequential institutions, Peterkop shares practical wisdom on what it takes to lead through change and crisis – with honesty and without pretending to have all the answers.

Tune in!

Following Estonia’s example, Ukraine is launching a Personal Data Access Monitoring Subsystem embedded in Trembita, the government’s secure data exchange platform. The mechanism allows every Ukrainian to see who accessed their personal data stored in government registers.

In this episode we host Yurii Kopytin, Senior Expert at the e-Governance Academy, and Hannes Astok, our Executive Director, about what transparency means in practice in Ukraine and, on the side, in Estonia too. 

Tune in!