Lately, I feel like the words digitalisation and AI follow me everywhere — in conversations, in work, in the news, even in the small everyday moments when technology either makes life easier or makes me sigh. People are still unsure about AI, and honestly, I get it. There’s excitement, but also fear, confusion, and a sense that things are moving too fast.
I came across this story in a recent update from the Vienna Office, and it genuinely made me pause — in the best possible way. It’s a perfect example of how the city approaches digital innovation thoughtfully.
Vienna just won a major European Commission award for its public‑sector AI platform, WienKI, and I have to admit: I’m impressed in a way I didn’t expect. While many European cities are still cautiously dipping their toes into AI, Vienna has already taken a significant step onto the international stage with a fully functioning, award-winning system. They presented it at the SEMIC 2025 conference in Copenhagen, where Vienna walked away with the Public Sector Tech Watch Best Cases Award — no small achievement.
The platform supports public administration staff with multilingual text generation, document summarisation, and even image analysis. The part that really caught my attention is how it handles data: it builds its own database and automatically anonymises sensitive information. For public institutions, where data protection is absolutely essential, this is huge.
Plus, there’s the multilingual aspect. Vienna is a wonderfully diverse city, and not everyone speaks German as their first language. With WienKI, administrative processes become faster and more inclusive. That’s not just digital progress — that’s social progress.
Another detail I admire is that the system can run both in the cloud and locally. It means Vienna isn’t dependent on a single external provider and can scale the system on its own terms. It’s such a smart, forward‑thinking move. The platform already complies with EU AI and data‑protection guidelines, making it far more than a local initiative — it stands as a true European model.
The numbers show that this isn’t just a pilot or a PR stunt: 2,500 active users, 70,000 created accounts, 14,000 documents.
For me, WienKI is proof that AI doesn’t have to be dystopian. Built with ethics and people in mind, it can make cities smarter, fairer, and more welcoming.
If more European cities followed Vienna’s example, our digital future would feel a lot less uncertain — and a lot more inspiring.
If you notice any inaccuracies in my writing, please get in touch with me. I will be happy to correct it.
