Digital PA: in FVG a contest to innovate the public system with AI, institutions and businesses

An important moment of discussion and proposal for the digitalisation of the Public Administration took place today in Udine, with the Pitch Day of the PA Digitale Contest , promoted by the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Department for Digital Transformation of the Presidency of the Council , with the support of Insiel SpA and the Digital Technologies Cluster of Friuli Venezia Giulia – DITEDI .

During the event, the mayor of Udine Alberto Felice De Toni recalled that already in 2024 the city hosted an event dedicated to artificial intelligence, from which the first joint projects of the Municipalities of Udine and Tavagnacco on the topic were born. “A path that today is strengthened – he underlined – thanks to the convergence of ideas and concrete experiences to modernize the PA”.

The Regional Councilor for Information Systems Sebastiano Callari praised the choral action implemented by the territory: “The path towards digital transformation is possible only thanks to the synergy between all the actors involved: institutions, businesses and local stakeholders. Friuli Venezia Giulia is setting an example in this sense”.

Luca Rigoni , of the Transformation Office of the Department for Digital Transformation , defined the event as “a virtuous example of public-private collaboration and coordination between central and regional institutions”, recalling that it is one of the first meetings on the national territory to promote the use of the residual resources of the PNRR , also thanks to widespread activity at a local level.

Sara Guttilla , Account Manager for the North East of the Transformation Office, illustrated the data relating to the impact of Mission 1 Component 1 of the PNRR on the regional territory: 35.5 million euros of projects already financed, 22 million already paid or in the process of being paid and approximately 9.5 million still available . “A great opportunity – she underlined – especially in light of the Directive of 23 January 2025, published in the Official Journal on 31 March, which provides operational indications on the use of residual funds”.

Among the technical interventions, Diego Antonini , Sole Director of Insiel , brought, together with the mayor of Porcia, Marco Sartini, the use case “Giul-IA” (EDIH-PAI project): a voice assistant based on artificial intelligence, created with the Municipality of Porcia as part of the European EDIH PAI program. “Starting in September, the testing of GiulIA will begin in Porcia, the virtual voice assistant developed in collaboration between Insiel and the Municipality of Porcia , designed to simplify access to municipal services, offer information support to citizens and improve interaction with the Public Administration. The service will be active through a dedicated telephone number, thanks to which citizens will be able to receive direct assistance from the new virtual assistant”.

“The collaboration with the Municipality of Porcia – explained Antonini – has allowed us to develop an experimental service that allows the training of a voice assistant based on artificial intelligence, to be used within the municipal administration. GiulIA is designed to evolve progressively, including advanced features such as voice recognition and the customization of services based on user needs”.

The goal is twofold: on the one hand, to improve accessibility to services for everyone, even those who are less familiar with digital tools; on the other, to optimize response times and free municipal staff from repetitive tasks, allowing for greater focus on strategic tasks with higher added value.

“Thanks to the financing of the EDIH-PAI project – added Antonini – we can offer local authorities the opportunity to directly test the added value of the technology, consciously evaluating costs and benefits before definitive adoption”.

The mayor of Porcia, Marco Sartini , underlined the concrete benefits of the initiative, including the reduction of the workload of the counters and the call center, the improvement of the efficiency in the management of requests, guaranteeing a service always available, without time constraints.

To understand in a concrete way the benefits of the virtual assistant, the mayor cited a figure: every week the Municipality receives on average over 1,000 phone calls from citizens (52 thousand per year) who ask recurring questions on topics in the registry field (certificates, issuing of identity cards, other documents), on school services and on urban planning matters. Thanks to Giul IA , which will be responsible for managing these requests, it will be possible to lighten the workload of the municipal offices and improve the overall efficiency of the service.

This was followed by speeches by Doriano Maranzana , director of Insiel Customer Service, who illustrated the regional project for the dematerialization of paper archives for local authorities, with a focus on building practices and the digitalization of registry and civil status . The project, which began with a listening phase through questionnaires to the Municipalities, will be at the center of the control room of the Central Single Procurement Office , scheduled for June 12. On that occasion, the results of the feasibility study will be presented and, with the authorization of the organization, a 16 million euro tender will be published, with an estimated operating time of about 9 months.

The initiative aims to respond to a real need of local authorities: digitizing paper archives in a centralized way and with a standardized solution accessible to all Municipalities.

Further contributions from Paolo Perucci , Deputy Director of the Central Directorate of Information Systems of the FVG Region, who presented the project #Reg4IA – Regions for AI , aimed at strengthening digital resilience through the use of 5G and artificial intelligence, in synergy with other Italian Regions.

The morning continued with a Pitch Session , moderated by Francesco Contin , Director of DITEDI, in which the companies of the ICT Cluster presented their solutions for the digitalization of the PA, divided into thematic areas: Facility Management, Environment and Territory, Urban Security, Citizen Services, Social Innovation . “I thank the companies that responded positively and proactively to the challenge posed, proposing ready-to-use solutions and innovative experimental ideas to be made available to local authorities and communities.”

20 solutions were presented by 17 local companies : Simmetri (Tre.Digital); Eteryal (Datamantix); Sine Build Public (SINE); Rivercleaning (Rivercleaning); AI4ClimateChange (AI4CC); WeCity-Sustainable mobility (Resolve); Mosaic – Design Your Decision (Resolve); Geo-Intelligence (Softengy); Public Administration 5.0 (Softengy); ETSecureCity (Eye-Tech); AI Secure (IS Copy); Chatbot Tourist Guide (InfoFactory); AI Agents for Citizens (InfoFactory); FriulData (Altitudo); DocuChat (Beliven); Intelligent Dashboard (BeanTech); Urban Spaces (Offline Agency); MAIA (CrowdM); Datasan Sociali for social services (Insoft); CivicAll.AI (SuperUrbanity).

Over 130 people participated, including 50 representatives of the municipalities of the area, who voted for the most interesting solutions at the end of the session. The final vote , in addition to rewarding the most effective proposals, represented a tangible sign of the active participation of local authorities in the digital transformation.

The event is part of a broader strategy to build a more accessible, efficient and citizen-friendly Public Administration, also thanks to the experimentation of intelligent digital tools and the synergic use of European resources.