AI for Everyone: Government and Business Should Build It Together
Prime Minister Robert Abela set a clear direction: new technology must be practical, visible, and useful in daily life so people feel confident adopting it. That requires government and enterprises moving in sync, building tools that solve real problems across services and operations.
His visit to Bajada Lyons Group underscored that point. Engineers and technology teams presented robotics, automation, and AI applications that translate from lab ideas to field work.
Policy moves that matter for delivery
- €100 million allocated in the 2026 Budget under "AI for Everyone" to prepare Malta, companies, and the public for fast progress in AI.
- An updated National AI Strategy launched for public consultation during the "Cabinet with the People" session.
- Accessibility as a core principle: "Whoever you are, however much you earn, and however much time you have, you should be able to benefit from technology like AI." - Prime Minister Robert Abela
What was presented on site
Bajada Lyons Group, based in Bulebel, brings 35 years of experience in photovoltaics and employs 200+ people. The group has expanded into energy services, hospitality, elderly care, and-more recently-digitalization, start-up investment, and incubation.
Teams demonstrated robotics solutions, including a robotic dog, integrated by Kingswell Innovation. The focus: keep humans in control while reducing exposure to risk and restoring abilities through prosthetics.
With Digital Brain, the Prime Minister reviewed AI uses in patient monitoring on hospital wards, equipment control to strengthen health and workplace safety, chatbots for service delivery, and systems to improve transport efficiency.
Industry signal
"We are building an ecosystem that connects traditional business operations with transformative technologies, both for our clients and for our country more broadly. We believe that Malta can become a leading competitor in intelligent automation solutions and AI-driven enterprises." - Mark Bajada, Founder of Bajada Lyons Group
Implications for government and operations leaders
- Start with service lines, not tech. Identify 5-10 high-friction processes (permits, inspections, triage, scheduling, call centers) that can benefit from AI copilots, automation, or computer vision.
- Stand up a data backbone. Define system-of-records, data owners, retention, quality checks, and access policies. Log all AI interactions for audit.
- Issue an AI procurement playbook. Pre-approve standard terms (security, privacy, IP, model updates, uptime, exit, data residency) and accelerate pilots to 90 days or less.
- Adopt a risk tiering model. Differentiate low-risk assistants (FAQ chat) from high-impact systems (clinical monitoring) with matching controls, testing, and human oversight.
- Target inclusive access. Design mobile-first and multilingual assistants; reserve channel parity for non-digital users.
- Measure outcomes. Track cycle time, error rates, SLA adherence, citizen satisfaction, and cost per transaction-publish the deltas.
- Upskill the workforce. Train case workers, inspectors, coordinators, and contact center teams on prompt patterns, verification, and exception handling.
- Co-deploy with industry. Use sandboxes with partners like systems integrators and start-ups to iterate quickly and transfer know-how to in-house teams.
90-day action plan
- Week 1-2: Form an AI delivery cell (product lead, data lead, security, legal, service owner). Pick 3 pilots tied to Budget priorities.
- Week 3-6: Secure data access, draft DPIA and risk tier, run shadow-mode testing with staff, define success metrics and rollback criteria.
- Week 7-10: Limited production with human-in-the-loop. Report metrics weekly; fix failure modes.
- Week 11-13: Decide scale-up or sunset. If scaling, document SOPs, training, and support paths.
Where training fits
If you're setting up delivery teams or re-skilling staff for AI-assisted operations, see practical tracks by role here: AI courses by job. For teams driving automation across departments, this certification can help standardize methods and controls: AI Automation Certification.
Who attended
The Prime Minister was accompanied by Minister for Home Affairs, Security, and Labour Byron Camilleri and Government MP Cressida Galea.
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