This is how SCB gets the pilot projects flying

Statistikmyndigheten SCB is developing a basic platform that will not only be useful for Statistics Sweden themselves, but for all the 29 authorities responsible for statistics that are responsible for official statistics in their respective areas. We wrote about that last year. Since then, the investment has rolled on and project manager Jakob Engdahl states that innovation work provides many insights and lessons learned. Things that were feared to be big problems were not - and vice versa.

- It is part of the experience. Getting started with the Proof of Concept was not difficult. Getting started with pilots hasn't been that difficult either, but we are now starting the journey from pilot to production - and that journey means making the project more serious, a bit more orderly, says Jakob Engdahl.

One of the insights from the pilot projects is data supply. It simply has to be easier to get the amounts of data onto the platform, and Jakob Engdahl points out that the threshold must be lowered so that you don't have to be a technician or an expert to actually start using the system.

- As part of that, we will look at how we can bring in generative AI so that you don't have to be a programmer when you go from thought and direction, to translating it into code that is executed in a secure environment, he says.

Much of the project has now been completed, but some remains and will be carried out during the project's extension during the year.

- We still have some "order-and-order pucks" left for us to dare to take this to production. It's important to think about all the guidelines and rules we have to follow, but for it to really get air, we have to secure it so that it feels like a natural part, with administration at a national level, he says.

What has been the most fun during the project?

- The most fun is the commitment. You can see that there is a will, and there are many who have expressed that they want to be involved. We have had a lot of people on a corner who have been allowed to test and work, and create new things through the opportunities offered through this platform, he says.

What happens next?

- The closest thing now is to secure so that we can not only function in a vacuum, but that this can function in at least three places; our own environment, in the environment that AI Sweden has and in Örebro University's lab, he says.

He explains that another step to be taken is to weave together Balsam with other national and international initiatives.

- There are thoughts about building an AI infrastructure and it feels like a natural consequence of this work. We have also identified a French initiative that is incredibly interesting, and we are having dialogues about integrating our solutions and combining them to get even more benefit, says Jakob Engdahl.

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