Eleven years into the war with Russia. Nearly four years since the full-scale invasion began. Daily attacks that never stop. And on Tuesday, Ukraine set a world record.
The country became the first on Earth to deploy a national AI assistant for government services – not a pilot program or limited trial, but a working system serving 23 million people. The World Record Books made it official at Kyiv’s WINWIN Summit.
Hanna Krysiuk handed out certificates to the teams who built it: Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation; Viktor Liakh from the Eastern Europe Foundation; Jacques Gerber representing Switzerland; and Charlotte Suren from the British Embassy.
“Today we have recorded a world record that will go down in the history of Ukraine and the entire world,” Krysiuk said. “Ukraine has become the first country to create a national assistant for government services – a unique digital tool that opens a new era of electronic democracy.”
Then Fedorov dropped news even he hadn’t seen coming. Ukraine would become the world’s first “agentic state.”
What this actually means
Diia.AI launched in September. If you’re one of the 23 million Ukrainians using the Diia app, you can now just type what you need. “I need an income certificate.” Done. It shows up in your email within seconds. No forms, no office visits, no bureaucratic maze.
The system handles over 200 services now. Driver’s licenses, business registrations, marriage certificates. Fedorov said about 70 percent of the legal work inside his ministry gets processed by AI first, with humans signing off at the end.
“You don’t need a great number of agencies, lawyers, designers, developers,” Fedorov explained at the WINWIN Summit where the record was certified. “This can be done through low-code with a couple of clicks.”
Ukraine went from ranking 102nd in digital government services in 2018 to 5th place today. That’s not gradual improvement. That’s a complete transformation.
The voice addition
During the summit, Ukraine signed with ElevenLabs to add voice capabilities to Diia. Soon you’ll be able to just speak your requests in Ukrainian instead of typing them.
Mateusz Staniszewski from ElevenLabs explained why this matters more than it sounds. Voice opens government services to people who struggle with keyboards and screens – elderly citizens, people with disabilities, anyone who finds typing a barrier.
Dmytro Ovcharenko, who is a CTO at Ukraine’s AI Center of Excellence, put it simply during the panel: “My parents, which represent the older generation, they use voice because it’s much easier than typing something, especially in governance services. And my child uses voice as well.”
Voice carries things text can’t – tone, urgency, emotion. For a country where millions have been displaced and documents lost, being able to speak to your government and have it understand you isn’t just convenient. It’s essential.
ElevenLabs already did something similar in Czech Republic, where 60 percent of calls to the labor ministry went unanswered because there weren’t enough staff. Now AI handles 85 percent of those calls – about 5,000 a day. People actually get help instead of a busy signal.
The agentic state idea
Fedorov’s big announcement was about going further. He wants Ukraine to become what he calls an “agentic state.” The term came from working with Luukas Ilves, the Estonian who helped build Estonia’s famous digital government.
Here’s the difference: Right now, Diia.AI responds when you ask for something. An agentic state anticipates what you need and offers it before you ask. The AI figures out you’re eligible for a benefit and initiates the process. It doesn’t wait for you to navigate the system – it brings the system to you.
“Digital transformation focuses on digitizing certain stages with added value,” Fedorov said. “AI is about rethinking the whole situation.”
It’s like the difference between a search engine and a personal assistant. One answers questions. The other understands what you’re trying to accomplish.
Ukrainian AI, not just American tech
Diia.AI runs on Google’s Gemini model right now, but Ukraine is building its own. They’re working with Kyivstar, the country’s biggest telecom company, to create a Ukrainian language model trained on Ukrainian data.
Why does that matter? Because Russian propaganda is constantly spreading disinformation – fake casualty numbers, false territorial claims, historical lies. A Ukrainian AI trained on verified information gives citizens accurate answers about their own country.
“This is a sovereign model that can read the Ukrainian context well and any kind of issue – our history, the full-scale war,” Fedorov said. “It’s disinformation, Russian disinformation free. Starting from practical issues as to which area is controlled by what force.”
That’s not abstract. That’s strategic. When your country is fighting an information war alongside a shooting war, having your own AI isn’t luxury – it’s necessity.
Ukraine is also setting up what they call AI Factories –government-funded infrastructure where companies and researchers can develop and test AI. The goal is to be top three globally for public sector AI by 2030.
How this got built
This didn’t happen in isolation. The UK’s DIGIT project, funded by UK Development and run through the Eurasia Foundation, provided technical and financial support. Switzerland’s EGAP program, implemented by the Eastern Europe Foundation, added more resources.
Seven international agreements got signed during Tuesday’s summit. The list of companies backing Ukraine’s AI infrastructure reads like a tech conference program: NVIDIA, Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Cisco, Mistral AI, ElevenLabs.
Anna Bulakh from Google made an important point during the summit: “Ukraine isn’t just consuming technology. It’s helping advance it.”
That’s Fedorov’s “win-win strategy.” Ukraine gets support and expertise. The tech companies get a real-world testing environment and a partnership that creates mutual value.
The bigger picture
Fedorov keeps emphasizing this isn’t just about efficient government services. It’s about transforming Ukraine’s economy. Getting into the top 30 countries by GDP. Shifting from agriculture to high-tech industries.
Ukraine already proved this works with defense tech. The country went from zero to 500 drone companies during the war. Fedorov wants to do the same with AI, semiconductors, medical technology, and everything else.
“Ukraine used to be famous as an agricultural land, but now we have presidents and prime ministers coming from all over the world to see how we manufacture drones,” Fedorov said.
Viktor Liakh, accepting his certificate for the Eastern Europe Foundation, framed the record as proof that “Ukraine can be technological, efficient, and people-oriented even despite the challenges of war.”
The security question
Deploying AI for government services raises obvious concerns, especially in a country Microsoft says faces over 25 percent of Russia’s total cyber operations.
Staniszewski walked through ElevenLabs’ security setup during the panel: Data stays in European systems. API access is locked to specific services. Citizens have to consent and provide their own voice recordings. The AI can’t go off-script into topics it’s not designed to handle.
“If that isn’t right, then you cannot deploy the technology,” he said. “All those pillars – the security at scale, safety, the European data sovereignty – are some of the key pillars.”
What happens next
The World Record Books made it official, but the real test is whether this model spreads. Other countries are watching. Estonia became the “cyber nation.” Ukraine is positioning itself to become the “AI nation.”
Oleksandr Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, compared it to the first iPhone. People wondered why you’d want a phone without buttons. Once they saw it work, they understood.
“This is no longer a dream,” Fedorov said. “This is the future that is being created right now.” The certificate will go on a wall somewhere in the ministry. The AI will keep running in the cloud, answering questions in Ukrainian, helping citizens access services that used to require navigating Soviet-era bureaucracy. Ukraine got there first. We’ll see who follows.
For more on Diia.AI, visit the website.