RIA innovates its Bürokratt solution, in collaboration with Microsoft, to run on cloud services like Azure

The Estonian government recently developed a national strategy to adopt AI-based solutions in the public and private sectors. As part of the effort, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia signed a cooperation agreement with Microsoft to contribute to the development of Estonian virtual assistant Bürokratt. As the Information System Authority (RIA) coordinates the development, safe implementation, and administration of the state IT infrastructure in Estonia, it is in charge of executing the project.

“Bürokratt is a solution that can be implemented as a widget on the website of any state institution, from the Police and Border Guard Board to the National Library of Estonia,” says Rainer Türner, Bürokratt Architect at RIA. “A person can ask a question via Bürokratt, and this question will automatically be forwarded to the relevant state organization to answer it. This saves time, paperwork, and trips to different locations. Before, the same request could take up to two days to be resolved.” 

Security concerns have prevented RIA from using private cloud solutions for governmental projects in the past. However, to ensure smooth communication between the institutions connected by Bürokratt, the adoption of cloud solutions offered by the private sector was an important step.

Finding the right creative solutions

As part of the transition to cloud solutions, RIA and Microsoft Industry Solutions Engineering (ISE) engineers developed the Distributed Message Rooms (DMR) prototypes to support the Bürokratt ecosystem. “Following the cooperation agreement with Microsoft, our engineers teamed together to create a prototype of the DMR. Using this function, data is properly encrypted, and communication between the institutions connected by Bürokratt can take place safely and securely,” explains Kaupo Laagriküll, Bürokratt Team Lead at RIA. “Our partner, Net Group, developed the algorithm that helps citizens receive relevant answers to their questions.” 

RIA is developing Bürokratt as an open-source project to keep partners in the loop and create a transparent work environment—a first for RIA. Microsoft supported the entire initiative. “Microsoft was very interested in co-developing this pilot program with us, and its team was pleased about the outcome. The engineering collaboration across our teams really helped drive innovation and agile methods of working,” says Türner.