Mission accomplished. From the State Chancellery and ministries to the judiciary, police, and other state authorities, our roughly 30,000 employees have embarked on a new path together. We want to become independent of large tech corporations and ensure digital sovereignty. Now we can also say: mission accomplished when it comes to email communication.
Combined with the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, there's renewed pressure for government to operate more like the private sector. In theory, that might sound reasonable. But in practice, the comparison is not only unhelpful; it's often misleading. It ignores the fundamental difference between the two sectors: government missions are defined by mandates, not markets. To meet current mandates, the government and its industry partners need to reevaluate and redefine their partnerships.
As part of an AI trial across government, more than 1,000 tech workers across 50 different departments trialed AI coding assistants from Microsoft, GitHub Copilot, and Google Gemini Code Assist between November 2024 and February this year. Figures published following a review of the scheme shows developers are saving around one hour each day, equivalent to around 28 working days a year. Technology minister Kanishka Narayan said the trial scheme highlights the benefits of rolling the technology out across government.