Katrineholm's AI Initiative Featured as Model for Italy in Italian Media Coverage

Digitalepopolare, a leading Italian technology publication, presents Katrineholm and Intric as an example of how AI can be democratised in the public sector.

Stockholm, 27 July 2026 — The Italian technology publication Digitalepopolare has published an in-depth analysis of Katrineholm Municipality's AI implementation with Intric, highlighting the Swedish municipality's work as a model for how artificial intelligence can transform public administration in Italy.

Read the full article in English at the bottom of the page

Link to the article on Digitale Popolares website

The article describes how Katrineholm, a Swedish municipality with just over 34,000 inhabitants, has made AI a natural part of daily operations rather than a technological experiment. By using Intric's platform, the municipality has created an ecosystem of AI assistants used by all departments for document management, HR, social services, education, and citizen services.

It describes the municipality's growth journey in numbers: in one year, the number of active users increased by 229 percent, interactions by 683 percent, and the number of assistants created by 145 percent. The article particularly highlights that one of the municipality's first user cases, verification of supplier invoices, resulted in the identification of discrepancies worth over 1.3 million Swedish kronor.

The article contrasts Katrineholm's approach with the Italian public sector's current AI use, which according to the article often focuses on individual applications or specific services. The author argues that the Swedish model shows how AI can become an organisational infrastructure that makes procedures, regulations, and knowledge available to all employees.

"The real lesson from Katrineholm is not about the number of assistants created, but about the method adopted," writes article author Valentina Maggiore. "The administration chose to invest first in people and their skills, then in tools. It involved managers, officials and operators, allowing each one to experiment with AI in their own working context."

About Katrineholm Municipality Katrineholm is a municipality in Södermanland County with approximately 34,000 inhabitants. The municipality has been a pioneer in the Swedish public sector regarding AI implementation and operates the AI Hub (ai-hubben.se) where tools, training and best practices are shared between departments and with other municipalities. katrineholm.se

About Digitale Popolare Digitalepopolare is an Italian technology publication focusing on digitalisation, artificial intelligence and public administration. The publication, registered with the Tribunale di Firenze and published by Fondazione Italia Digitale, covers topics including digital communication, AI, digital public administration, digital healthcare and sustainable digitalisation. digitalepopolare.it

About Intric Intric builds sovereign AI infrastructure for governments and critical institutions. The platform enables organisations to deploy AI assistants and agents on their own data, under their own governance, without dependency on external cloud infrastructure. Intric is developed in Sweden and is in active deployment across regulated institutions in the Nordics and Germany. Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Stockholm.

Press contact: Tiger Landén | tiger.landen@intric.ai

Full Article - AI in Public Administration: the Swedish example that could also change Italy

Author: Valentina Maggiore

Artificial intelligence has already entered Public Administration as a strategic lever. But the real challenge is not adopting it: it is making it work inside organisations, transforming it into skills, more efficient processes and better services for citizens. Sweden shows us a path with a concrete case: in Katrineholm , a small Swedish municipality of just over 34,000 inhabitants, AI has not remained a technological experiment but has become part of the daily work of its offices.

An experience that speaks to Italy too. Because it shows that innovation does not come from platforms alone, but from the ability to involve people, build trust and govern change. This is where the game of the coming years will be played: using artificial intelligence not to replace Public Administration, but to make it more efficient, competent and closer to citizens.

From the automation of a process to a widespread AI culture throughout the organisation

Katrineholm's journey did not begin with a single artificial intelligence project, but with a broader reflection on how to make it truly useful within the organisation.

During the initial experiments, the municipality understood that the real challenge was not to develop a virtual assistant, but to equip itself with a simple and secure platform that would also allow non-technical staff to independently create tools capable of meeting the daily needs of the offices. From this vision came the decision to adopt Intric , a Swedish AI platform designed for the public sector, with the goal of democratising AI use and fostering its widespread adoption across the entire organisation.

The first use case was verifying the correctness of invoices received from suppliers. Thanks to an AI-based assistant, the municipality was able to identify anomalies and recover over 1.3 million Swedish kronor.

That result represented much more than a financial saving. It demonstrated that AI can produce measurable benefits and, above all, generate trust within the organisation.

From that moment, the project grew rapidly. Today all departments use virtual assistants developed through Intric , while the AI Hub  brings together tools, training, statistics and good practices shared among administrations. Through an ecosystem of virtual assistants, staff are supported in document management, human resources, social services, education, access to internal knowledge and even in citizen-facing services.

The numbers tell of a structural change: in just one year, active users increased by 229%, interactions by 683% and assistants created by 145%. A sign that artificial intelligence is no longer perceived as an experiment, but as an internal component of the organisation.

Andreas Peterzén, Chief Digital Officer of the Municipality of Katrineholm, explains: "To enable the public sector to fully fulfil its mission, we must free up time to devote to what only people can do: building relationships with citizens. Intric allowed us to get started quickly and safely, ensuring GDPR compliance and making sure data always remained where it should be. Today the platform has become a natural part of our work. Our goal is not to multiply pilot projects, but to democratise artificial intelligence and generate concrete, measurable benefits. And what we develop, we share with other municipalities: that is our strength."

The challenge for Italy's public administration? Taking it one step further

Italy's Public Administration is also accelerating on artificial intelligence. Virtual assistants, chatbots, tools for drafting administrative acts, document analysis and decision support are already present in many central and local administrations. INPS, for example, has developed virtual assistants based on generative artificial intelligence to guide citizens, companies and intermediaries in accessing digital services. The Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate), INAIL and several central and regional administrations — including Ministries, Departments of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Municipalities and Regions — are also experimenting with artificial intelligence solutions to improve user assistance, document management and the efficiency of internal processes.

AI is used above all to facilitate citizens' access to services and to ease administrative workloads, reducing response times and repetitive tasks. This is an important path, but one still often focused on individual applications or specific services. Their use is always governed in compliance with the principle of human oversight set out in the AgID guidelines  and the new European regulatory framework.

The Swedish experience instead suggests a different perspective: artificial intelligence can become an organisational infrastructure, capable of making procedures, regulations, knowledge and operational tools available to every employee, fostering greater quality of work and more effective, high-quality services for citizens.

The experiences already underway in Italy demonstrate that experimentation has already begun. The challenge today is no longer understanding whether to use AI in Public Administration, but how to transform it from a set of digital tools into a lever for organisational change.

Change starts with people, not technology

The true lesson from Katrineholm is not about the number of assistants created, but about the method adopted. The administration chose to invest first in people and their skills, then in tools. It involved managers, officials and operators, allowing each one to experiment with AI in their own working context.

This is the step that could also inspire our Public Administration. Innovation is not measured only by the introduction of new platforms, but by the ability to make them accessible, safe and truly useful for those who work every day in public services.

In a context where administrations are called upon to do more with limited resources, artificial intelligence can become a powerful enabler of efficiency. But only if it stops being a project of a single IT office and becomes the shared heritage of the entire organisation.

This is where the true leap in quality is decided. Not when an administration adds yet another digital tool, but when AI enters the organisational culture, improves people's work and makes the relationship with citizens simpler, faster and more human. The lesson from Katrineholm is all here: artificial intelligence truly works only when it becomes public value and the shared heritage of the entire organisation.