Albania unveils world’s first AI minister ‘Diella’ to oversee public procurement

Albania has made history by becoming the first country in the world to appoint an artificial intelligence–powered minister.

It is a fully virtual officeholder created with pixels, code and machine intelligence.

Named Diella — meaning “sunshine” in Albanian — the digital minister will take charge of all public procurement, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced on Thursday.

Earlier this summer, Rama had hinted at the possibility of Albania one day having a digital minister, or even an AI prime minister, though few expected such a swift reality.

At the Socialist Party assembly in Tirana, where cabinet reshuffles were confirmed, Rama unveiled Diella as the only non-human member of his government.

“Diella is the first member not physically present, but virtually created by artificial intelligence,” he told party members.

According to Rama, all decisions on tenders will gradually be transferred from human ministries into the hands of the AI-powered minister, whom he described as “the servant of public procurement.”

He explained that the rollout would be “step-by-step,” but stressed that the end goal was to make Albania “a country where public tenders are 100 percent incorruptible and where every public fund that goes through the tender procedure is 100 percent legible.”

“This is not science fiction, but the duty of Diella,” he declared.

Diella is not entirely new to Albanians. She already powers the e-Albania digital services platform, which allows citizens to access nearly all government services online. Her avatar — a young woman in traditional Albanian attire — has also been introduced to the public.

Beyond evaluating tenders, Diella has been tasked with recruiting “talents here from all over the world,” while dismantling “the fear of prejudice and rigidity of the administration.”

Albania’s public procurement sector has long been plagued by corruption, a recurring concern raised by the European Union in its annual rule of law assessments.

Rama, who secured a historic fourth term in May 2025, has pledged to push for EU membership by 2030.

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