Luxembourg is turning its 36,000-strong civil service into an AI-powered administration and the Centre des Technologies de l’Information de l’État (CTIE) is leading the charge.
When Luxembourg’s government announced it would embed artificial intelligence across its digital infrastructure, few institutions were better placed to lead the charge than CTIE, the Centre des Technologies de l’Information de l’État. As the technological backbone of the Grand Duchy’s public administration, CTIE oversees everything from cybersecurity to eGovernment platforms. Now, under the direction of Patrick Houtsch, it is orchestrating one of Europe’s most ambitious public-sector AI transformations.
“Public servants will be supported by AI in their daily tasks and daily routines to become more efficient,” says Houtsch. For him, AI is not a futuristic dream, it’s an operational necessity. Translations, search knowledge bases, compiling documents, all of this can be done faster, better, and more intelligently.
Citizen-facing AI
One of the earliest applications will be AI-assisted “knowledge bases”. Each administration in Luxembourg uses an internal intranet packed with documents and guidelines. These repositories are often cumbersome, requiring the public administration’s more than 36,000 staff to manually search for procedural or HR answers. In the future Houtsch explains that “there will be chatbots where you can just ask a question instead of searching and going through documents.”
“AI will find the correct answer faster and more reliably”
That same logic extends to citizen interactions. Agents at the guichet.lu, the one-stop shop for administrative services, will soon be able to query AI systems for real-time answers to public enquiries. The aim, says Houtsch, is not to replace humans but to amplify them. “AI will find the correct answer faster and more reliably.”
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Coding and project acceleration
Beyond internal support tools, CTIE plans to weave AI into its project pipeline. The agency currently manages between 350 and 400 concurrent digital projects across 120 public administrations. Each is being reviewed for AI integration potential, from document classification to workflow automation.
CTIE’s most transformative application may be AI-assisted coding. “We can use AI to test applications, to audit applications and to document applications,” Houtsch notes. In an environment where delivery speed and compliance are critical, that shift could redefine how digital services are built for the government. “I expect it to have a huge impact on how fast we can deliver projects,” Houtsch says.
AI across European public administrations
Luxembourg is not alone in this ambition; across Europe, public administrations are experimenting with AI to transform services. Some are more advanced than others. In 2024, France’s public administration introduced generative-AI assistant Albert to help government agents answer citizen queries, search regulations and draft summaries. In 2023, Estonia released Bürokratt, a network of chatbots on Estonian government websites that delivers information and services. Luxembourg has drawn inspiration from countries, such as Finland and Denmark, which prioritise collaboration. “As a small country we don’t have as much data as other countries so we focus on high quality data and international collaborations to benefit from best practices,” Vera Soares, government strategies coordinator and advisor, explains. The challenge comes in balancing access to quality data alongside respect for privacy.
“There’s a saying, AI won’t take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI will”
AI adoption is not just technological, it’s cultural. “Training is essential to understand AI, to know the risks and how to use it,” Houtsch stresses. CTIE aims to have 10% of its workforce trained on AI by the end of 2025. “There’s a saying, AI won’t take your job, but someone who knows how to use AI will,” he notes, highlighting the importance of upskilling the workforce.
Mistral AI partnership
Central to Luxembourg’s AI sovereignty is the multi-year strategic partnership with Mistral AI, the French AI company, signed on 17 June 2025. Under the agreement, Mistral AI established a local office and deep cooperation across public administration, research, industry, and defence. Rather than rely on cloud-based tools such as ChatGPT, Luxembourg is deploying “Chat Mistral”, an in-house model hosted within government data centres. “The data will stay inside the government,” stresses Houtsch, adding that it was important to choose a European partner.
The agreement aligns closely with the EU’s AI sovereignty goals, ensuring data control, compliance with EU regulations like the AI Act, and develops European AI capacity as an alternative to foreign providers.
The first visible results will arrive towards the end of 2025, including a legal chatbot for Legilux, trained specifically on Luxembourgish and European law. “It will help people to understand law, search law, maybe translate law,” he explains.
Governance and ethics
AI deployment at CTIE rests on three pillars: competence, platforms, and standards. All projects are governed by CTIE’s “Capital IT” methodology, which embeds security by design and integrates the EU’s upcoming AI Act risk classifications.
“You need to classify if it’s a high-risk project and take actions accordingly,” stresses Houtsch. Beyond compliance, CTIE also collaborates with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) to audit AI solutions for bias and quality.
To ensure fairness and transparency, a “challenger system” evaluates AI agents through predefined questions and metrics, allowing for continuous performance checks. This not only enhances accountability but also helps optimise efficiency, identifying when smaller, less energy-hungry models can deliver similar results.
The environmental dimension is never far from Houtsch’s mind. Luxembourg’s government data centres run entirely on renewable energy. While no public data is available about the GPU-specific resource consumption for the CTIE’s three data centres and GovCloud, the private cloud network it runs for public administrations, AI’s resource intensity remains a concern. “We try to use smaller models where possible and leave the larger ones for high-demand cases,” he says. “It’s about being selective and efficient.”
Of CTIE’s €175 million annual budget, €10–12 million is earmarked for AI platforms and infrastructure. “We almost do no project without subcontractors,” Houtsch confirms, though he stresses the importance of retaining core expertise in-house.
The road ahead
By year’s end, the first Chat Mistral deployments and the Legilux legal chatbot should be operational. Over time, citizens may notice simpler language on government websites, faster service responses, and new digital assistants embedded across ministries.
“We don’t use AI just for fun,” concludes Houtsch. “These projects make sense. They create value, they help people to be more efficient, and they remove boring tasks. I believe there’s a big potential, if it’s used the right way.”
This article was published in the 8th edition of Forbes Luxembourg.
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