Cambodia Climbs the Government AI Readiness Index: What It Means for Public Agencies
Cambodia moved up to 118th out of 195 in the 2025 Government AI Readiness Index, rising 27 places from 145th in 2024. The country scored 33.5, while China leads the East Asia group with 75.4.
According to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, this progress comes from steady work on digital infrastructure, skills, policy, and responsible use of AI. For government teams, that's a clear signal: AI is becoming a core capability for service delivery and national competitiveness.
Why This Matters for Public Institutions
Better AI readiness can translate to faster services, cleaner data, and smarter decision-making across ministries. It also builds trust with citizens when systems are secure, fair, and transparent.
Climbing the index isn't about optics-it's about execution. Agencies that move early will set standards and secure resources first.
What Has Moved the Needle
- Launched the National Research Center for AI in Education.
- Published an assessment of the country's ethical readiness for AI.
- Released the Digital Skills Roadmap 2024-2035.
- Drafts in progress: National AI Strategy, Personal Data Protection, and Cybersecurity Law.
- Released public-facing AI tools and platforms: verify.gov.kh, TranslateKH, Sarika, Khmer Braille machine translation, Khmer ASR, Khmer Fastype, and the Cambodian AI Platform (ai.gov.kh).
Near-Term Priorities for Ministries and Agencies
- Data foundations: Inventory key datasets, add basic metadata, and set quality checks. Run privacy impact assessments and prepare data-sharing agreements that align with the upcoming data protection law.
- Procurement: Update RFPs with AI safeguards (bias testing, security reviews, model transparency). Include performance benchmarks, exit clauses, and data retention rules.
- Skills: Roll out role-based upskilling-AI literacy for all staff, with deeper training for analysts, policy teams, and IT. Consider practical public-sector courses (see AI courses by job).
- Governance: Appoint an AI lead in each agency, set up an ethics review process, keep a risk register, and define incident reporting for AI failures.
- High-impact use cases: Translation and speech tools (TranslateKH, Khmer ASR) for citizen support; document verification (verify.gov.kh); accessibility (Khmer Braille translation); drafting aids for routine memos; triage for service requests.
- Measurement: Track time saved, error rates, and citizen satisfaction. Publish pilot results to build confidence and inform scaling.
Guardrails That Protect Public Trust
- Use privacy-by-default practices and minimize personal data exposure.
- Test for bias before and after deployment; include human review for sensitive decisions.
- Be clear with citizens when AI is used and how decisions are made.
- Integrate cybersecurity reviews into every AI procurement and update.
- Maintain accessibility standards so services work for everyone, including users who rely on Braille and speech tools.
What to Watch in 2026
The ministry expects further gains once the National Data Center and the Khmer LLM go live. Agencies, universities, startups, and development partners working in sync can turn that momentum into better services and stronger outcomes.
For context on the ranking, see the Oxford Insights Government AI Readiness Index. For tools and updates, visit the Cambodian AI Platform.
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