⚡ Quick Summary
Published by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Digital Services (DG DIGIT) with the Joint Research Centre, this report presents the findings of the Public Sector Tech Watch (PSTW) observatory on how European public administrations pilot and implement emerging technologies. It is the observatory's second publication and analyses a database of 1,617 cases — 1,295 AI, 270 Blockchain and 52 other cases (42 AR/VR, 6 Virtual Worlds, 4 quantum computing) — collected up to May 2024.
The report defines the technologies in scope and maps the EU policy landscape around them, then analyses the database by technology, level of administration, status of development, function of government and public value. It reports that 47% of cases are set at national level and 33% at local level, that 47% aim at administrative efficiency and 53% at better public services, and that 15% enhance open government capabilities. Blockchain cases are mostly pilots (64%), while AI cases are 42% pilots and 40% implemented.
Six recommendations close the report, on knowledge sharing and reuse, assessing project 'implementability', experimenting with AR/VR and Virtual Worlds, research on Generative AI and General Purpose AI, evaluating and disclosing AI risks under the AI Act, and collaborating with SMEs and startups.
🧩 What’s Covered
- Background and definitions (Section 2): the technologies monitored — AI (the AI Act definition of an AI system, intended-purpose versus general-purpose AI, machine learning, deep learning and Generative AI), Blockchain as a type of distributed ledger, Virtual Worlds, VR/AR and quantum computing.
- EU policy landscape: the Digital Decade Policy Programme 2030, the Digital Europe Programme (EUR 7.6 billion), the Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, the Interoperable Europe Act, the AI Act (in force 1 August 2024; unacceptable, high and low/minimal risk; AI Office; EUR 500 million for GenAI4EU), MiCA, eIDAS, the Data Act, EBSI, EUROPEUM-EDIC, the European Blockchain Regulatory Sandbox, the Web 4.0 and Virtual Worlds strategy, the Quantum Technologies Flagship, EuroHPC and EuroQCI.
- PSTW observatory (Section 3): its mission and activities, including 15 published stories, more than 300 community members, webinars and the Best Cases Award.
- Landscape analysis (Section 4): the 1,617 cases across EU27 and neighbouring countries, up 494 (44%) on the previous report; Germany and Italy lead with 192 cases each, followed by the Netherlands (187) and the United Kingdom (115); distributions by administrative level, status of development and public value.
- AI adoption (Section 5): 1,295 cases, led by Germany (167), the Netherlands (154), Italy (138) and the United Kingdom (81); 42% pilots, 40% implemented and 14% in development; G2C and G2G patterns; functions of government; technology subdomains (Machine Learning in half of the cases, NLP 24%, computer vision 22%); a box on 23 Generative AI cases.
- Blockchain adoption (Section 6): 270 cases, led by Italy (48), the Netherlands (33) and Spain (28); 64% pilots and 17% implemented; national 46%, local 25%, across countries 20%; application types including certification and validation, payments and international transactions, data sharing, registration and notarisation, self-sovereign identity and tracking of goods; 26% cross-border and 18% cross-sector cases.
- Other emerging technologies (Section 7): 52 cases, mostly AR/VR, skewed towards local administrations and G2C services in education, recreation, culture and health, with quantum computing concentrated at national level for research and development.
- Recommendations and conclusion (Sections 8 and 9): six recommendations and a summary of the analysis.
💡 Why it matters?
For officials responsible for digital government, this report supplies an empirical base for decisions otherwise shaped by vendor claims. It shows where AI, Blockchain, AR/VR, Virtual Worlds and quantum computing are already piloted or implemented, at which administrative level, and what public value is claimed, which helps business cases, reuse of solutions and cross-border collaboration. It situates deployments in the EU framework the document describes: AI Act risk classification, impact assessment and transparency duties, procurement conditions, EBSI, regulatory sandboxes and EU funding. It also documents the pilot-to-implementation gap that governance and assurance functions must manage.
❓ What’s Missing
The authors state that the database is only a limited statistically representative sample, so no comparison or benchmark between countries is proposed. Public value is assessed mainly through informed projections rather than formal impact assessments, since many cases are early-stage. The 52 cases of other emerging technologies are too few to describe general trends. The policy overview is explicitly not exhaustive, and the report gives no cost, procurement or case-level compliance detail, so it does not tell an administration which AI Act obligations attach to a given solution.
👥 Best For
Civil servants and digital government leads scanning what peers across Europe have piloted or deployed; policy analysts and researchers using the PSTW taxonomy and dataset; GovTech SMEs, startups and vendors positioning offerings for public buyers; and governance or compliance staff who need a map of where AI already sits in public administration before AI Act assessments.
📄 Source Details
Adoption of AI, Blockchain and other emerging technologies within the European public sector, a Public Sector Tech Watch report by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Digital Services, with the Joint Research Centre; authors listed in alphabetical order (ten names). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2024; 62 pages; English. PDF ISBN 978-92-68-22046-7, doi 10.2799:3438251, catalogue number NO-01-24-001-EN-N. It is the second report under the PSTW observatory. No URL for the document itself is printed. The full text extraction of all 62 pages was available.
