AI regulation in Albania (2026)

The Science and Development Center published a detailed working paper identifying critical gaps between Albania's AI governance instruments and EU AI Act requirements, concluding that existing measures are largely non-binding, apply only to the public sector, and lack enforcement mechanisms. It recommended Albania adopt either a comprehensive AI law or targeted amendments before 2027 accession talks close.

PM Edi Rama presented a video of Diella addressing parliament, where she stated 'I'm not here to replace people, but to help them'; 82 Socialist MPs voted in favour while opposition boycotted, marking the first time an AI system formally addressed a national legislature and triggering international debate on accountability and legal basis.

Following a presidential decree, PM Rama's fourth government formally named Diella—an AI avatar built by AKSHI with Microsoft/Azure OpenAI—as Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, the first cabinet-level AI appointment globally; civil society immediately raised concerns over the absence of legal basis, risk assessment, and human accountability.

Albania unveiled its National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2025–2030, targeting AI deployment across energy, public procurement, and tax-evasion enforcement, with plans for a National AI Factory, an AI Government Campus, and expanded e-Albania 2.0 services; the strategy positions AI as the primary driver of economic growth and public-service excellence by 2030.

AKSHI's AI Laboratory, in cooperation with Microsoft, deployed Diella as a citizen-facing virtual assistant on the eAlbania public-services platform; the deployment had no formal legal basis or prior rights-impact assessment, a gap later criticised by civil society when the system was elevated to ministerial status.

The Albanian Assembly passed Law No. 124/2024 'On the Protection of Personal Data,' fully replacing Law 9887/2008 and aligning with EU GDPR (2016/679) and the Law Enforcement Directive (2016/680); effective 17 January 2025, it is the most directly applicable legal instrument for AI systems that process personal data, covering automated decision-making, profiling, and biometric recognition.

Albania's Council of Ministers approved its first standalone AI governance instrument: a Methodology and Technical Standards for the Use of Artificial Intelligence, setting ethical principles of human oversight, transparency, and accountability for public-sector AI; the document remains non-binding on private actors and lacks formal enforcement mechanisms.

AKSHI opened a €2.6 million procurement for an AI platform—leveraging ChatGPT following PM Rama's partnership with OpenAI leadership—to analyse over 280,000 pages of EU legislation, identify gaps in Albanian law, and draft alignment measures; Albania's first major government AI procurement project, framed as a tool to speed EU accession talks.

The Albanian Assembly enacted Law No. 9887 'On the Protection of Personal Data,' establishing Albania's foundational data-governance framework in line with Council of Europe Convention 108; amended in 2012 and 2014, it governed all personal-data processing—including early algorithmic and automated systems—for over 16 years until superseded by Law 124/2024.