The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine has presented the WINWIN AI Center of Excellence, a center of excellence for the development and integration of AI that will transform the state, business, and society, strengthening Ukraine’s global competitiveness. The Center will implement artificial intelligence in government processes and key areas of life: defense, medicine, education, and business.

The WINWIN AI CoE is the first Center of Excellence established as part of the WINWIN Digital Innovation Development Strategy. Its goal is to unite experts, resources, and innovations for the development of AI and key areas of Ukrainian life.

First of all, WINWIN AI CoE focuses on the development of AI solutions for the public and defense sectors.

“This year, we will actively integrate artificial intelligence into all our projects. The world is developing at a frantic pace, and if we want to be among the leaders, we need to act just as fast. Our goal in this direction is to become one of the top 3 countries in the world by 2030 in terms of integration and implementation of AI solutions,” emphasized Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister for Innovation, Education, Science and Technology, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine.

Artificial intelligence will help improve public services for citizens and optimize the work of civil servants. We are talking about integrating AI into Diia, the Mriya educational app, creating tools for data analysis in the state, etc.

“Artificial intelligence can build individualized educational trajectories for schoolchildren, automatically identify targets on the battlefield, diagnose diseases, and increase business profitability. Our task is to find effective ways to use this technology in each of the spheres – from education to public administration,” said Oleksandr Borniakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for IT Development.

The main areas of work of the center are:

• development of AI products for the public sector and defense
• implementation of artificial intelligence in science
• creating educational opportunities for AI specialists and citizens
• support for startups and small and medium enterprises in AI integration
• cooperation with international technology companies (BigTech)

The key goals of the center for the year are:

1. Launch the development of AI products for the public sector:

• create a mechanism for developing pilot AI solutions
• launch of an AI incubator for product development
• the center’s team developed 16 pilots, 50% of which were transferred to MVPs, and launched at least three AI products

     2. To lay the technological foundation for the country’s AI sovereignty with its own LLM model:

• technical infrastructure for launching national AI products has been created
• develop a national language model (LLM) for public services
• AI technology strategy with a focus on scaling and integration of AI into Diia, Mriia, AI Legal, etc. projects was formed

     3. Generate AI solutions in the defense tech sector – the goal is not public

The Center is headed by Danylo Tsvok, the new Chief AI Officer of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. He has more than 10 years of experience in technology and innovation management, coordinated AI in corporate R&D, and headed specialized government institutions in the field of innovation. He holds a PhD in economics.

The center’s CTO is Dmytro Ovcharenko, an architect and CTO with over 17 years of experience in IT product development and AI implementation, an expert in building centers of excellence (CoE), and former director of GenAI practice at SoftServe.

“I am amazed that Ukraine continues to develop successfully during the full-scale invasion of Russia, which has been going on for three years. We and our international partners can learn from your tireless resilience, innovation and creativity. This is one of the pillars of the Centennial Partnership Agreement that Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed in January. We look forward to many more partnerships in science, technology, and innovation between the UK and Ukraine,” said British Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Harris.

WINWIN AI CoE will operate in the format of a project incubator – a space for analyzing, developing, and testing AI solutions. The team will collect requests for process and service improvements and develop appropriate AI solutions together with businesses. After testing, the innovations will be implemented in services for citizens and civil servants.

“The WINWIN Strategy envisages the creation of such centers in all priority areas, including EdTech, MedTech, XR, Secure Cyber Space, etc. Their main goal is to explore innovations, implement pilot projects in Ukraine, and attract investments and partners. We are also engaged in a dialogue with governments and private sector representatives from other countries to jointly implement this strategy,” said Valeria Ionan, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation for European Integration.

The WINWIN AI Center of Excellence was created as part of the WINWIN 2030 Strategy for Digital Development of Innovations in Ukraine. The Center was initiated by the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The concept was developed with the support of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCDO) and Deloitte UK.

Source: https://thedigital.gov.ua/