Albania's government says its AI assistant now takes voice requests. All the numbers are its own.

From the archive. First reported by RTSH, January 2025. Where it stands now: Still running, as of July 2026, RTSH, Jul. 27, 2026. Why I saved this: The scale is what stands out to me: one government assistant answering questions on 1,247 e-services around the clock. But every usage number here comes from the agency that runs it, and the cost to taxpayers hasn't been disclosed.

January 2025 — Albania has upgraded Diella, the virtual assistant on its e-Albania government services portal, so people can ask for public services by voice. Here's what changed for citizens, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of January 2025)

Version 1.0 usage: over 1 million interactions in its first year. (RTSH)
Version 2.0 usage: 16,000 interactions in four days. (ATA)
Coverage: real-time questions and answers on 1,247 e-services, 24/7. (ATA)
Technology: Azure OpenAI and Microsoft AI models. (RTSH)
Cost to taxpayers: Not disclosed.
Error rate or completed requests: Not disclosed.

What launched

On Jan. 20, AKSHI said Diella 2.0 was live on e-Albania. e-Albania is the government's online portal for public services. Users can now talk to the assistant and see visual responses, not only type.

"Now, you can request public services via voice messages directed at the Virtual Assistant," AKSHI said, crediting "Azure OpenAI technologies and Microsoft's AI models." Azure OpenAI is Microsoft's cloud service that lets organizations run OpenAI's language models.

AKSHI calls this version "Diella Zadrimore," or Diella from Zadrima, a region in northern Albania. RTSH said the upgrade comes one year after version 1.0 launched, and framed it as making public services more accessible "for all citizens and businesses."

The first four days

Three days later, ATA reported that Diella had 16,000 interactions with citizens in her first four days. Enio Kaso, AKSHI's director for artificial intelligence, gave the details in a TV interview.

Kaso said Diella "recognizes and processes" requests made in dialect, not only standard Albanian. She offers real-time question-and-answer help on 1,247 electronic services, around the clock, he said.

The next update, he said, will let Diella generate a requested document automatically after a voice command and send it to the user's "My Space" area of their e-Albania account.

What the numbers mean

An "interaction" isn't defined in either report. It could be a single question or a full conversation. Neither report says how many interactions ended with a citizen getting the service or document they asked for.

The four-day number is also a launch-week figure. It shows interest, not lasting use. The million-plus figure for version 1.0 covers a full year, so the two aren't directly comparable.

AKSHI hasn't published what the system costs, how it's tested for wrong answers, or what happens to the voice recordings people send.

What to watch

Dialect support is the claim most worth testing. It's hard to check from outside, and it matters most for the people a voice-first assistant is meant to help. Kaso didn't say how dialect handling was tested or how often it fails.

The document feature is the bigger step. Answering questions about a service is one thing. Generating an official document from a voice command means the system acts on a citizen's behalf, and errors carry more weight.

Why it matters for operators

This is a government running a chatbot as the front door to hundreds of services, on a commercial cloud AI platform. The pitch is speed and access. The open questions are the ones any operator faces: accuracy, cost per resolved request, and data handling.

What went wrong

Only official numbers. Every figure comes from the agency that runs Diella, carried by state media.
"Interactions" isn't defined. There's no completion or error rate.
No cost. The price of the system and its cloud use isn't public.
What we don't know yet: how accurate Diella's answers are, where voice data is stored, and whether document generation ships.

Our follow-up question for AKSHI

Of the 16,000 interactions, how many ended with the citizen getting the service or document they asked for?

Sources

RTSH, “Diella from Zadrima: Virtual Assistant 2.0 Revolutionizes Public Service Access via Voice Messages,” Jan. 20, 2025. rtsh.al
Ermira Isufaj, ATA (ATSH), “Asistentja virtuale në e-Albania, 16 mijë ndërveprime me qytetarët në katër ditë” (in Albanian: "Virtual assistant on e-Albania, 16 thousand interactions with citizens in four days"), Jan. 23, 2025. ata.gov.al
RTSH, “Albania's artificial intelligence assistant 'Diella' records over 3 million interactions on e-Albania,” Jul. 27, 2026. rtsh.al

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder