AI to Help Process Citizen Requests in the DPR

The rollout of digital technologies and AI is taking place in one of Russia's newest regions alongside infrastructure restoration, the modernization of administrative processes, and integration into federal digital platforms. As a result, authorities are expected to respond to residents' requests more quickly, document workflows should accelerate, and the government will be able to build a growing body of data on recurring citizen concerns. The groundwork for this effort is already in place: all ministries, agencies, and municipalities in the DPR have been connected to the electronic document-management system, and the number of users has surpassed 5,900.

AI - A Key Assistant, Not a Replacement for Professionals

If the system goes beyond simply generating responses and instead classifies citizen requests, identifies responsible departments, detects recurring issues, and helps officials prepare documents, it could become a practical tool for regional governance. In that role, AI serves as an additional layer - an interface for digital government operations. If the deployment proves successful, Russian developers will strengthen their expertise in digital public-service technologies, potentially creating solutions that could later find demand in international markets.

This area is becoming increasingly important. Meanwhile, it is critical to remember that AI should remain a supporting tool rather than a substitute for public-sector employees. Classification errors, formulaic responses, personal-data leaks, or model hallucinations could undermine public trust in digital services. The success of the technology will therefore depend on reliability, integration with federal systems, and effective human oversight.

Electronic Document Management, Step by Step

As early as 2021, Russia was discussing the use of neural networks to automatically rank citizen requests by communication quality and level of importance. In the DPR, meanwhile, an interagency electronic document-management project has been underway since December 2023. It was launched under tight deadlines and challenging conditions before expanding to cover ministries, agencies, and municipalities across the region.

In 2025, Russia's Ministry of Digital Development proposed using AI for document processing, data analysis, handling standard citizen requests, drafting responses, reviewing legislative proposals, and other public-sector tasks. Officials also emphasized that AI should not be used with classified state information and that access to such systems would be provided through ESIA, Russia's Unified Identification and Authentication System. That same year, the Russian government announced a shift away from paper documents and electronic copies toward structured digital documents. Following 2025, federal authorities began evaluating regional digital-transformation performance through rankings and performance indicators. Competition among Russian regions in the field of digitalization is increasingly becoming part of the broader governance agenda.

AI Will Help Reveal More About Residents' Concerns

The objectives have been defined - now the focus shifts to implementation quality. If the risks outlined above are effectively addressed, both the region and the country could gain a strong example of technology serving people, where AI helps relieve employees of repetitive tasks while improving the quality of public services delivered to residents. One additional advantage of AI is analytics. It can help authorities identify and classify residents' concerns more accurately, making it possible to address priority issues more quickly.

In the near term, AI will most likely be used for automatic classification of citizen requests, assistance with drafting responses and official protocols, and analysis of recurring issues. Over time, attention may shift toward integrating AI tools with the regional document-management system, citizen-feedback platforms, electronic document-management systems, and other federal digital platforms.

We are already deploying artificial intelligence. It is being used to work with citizen requests, and even some official protocols are being prepared with the help of AI. So we are moving forward gradually and evaluating the results. This year, the government's main objective is the digital transformation of the government itself, the ministries, and the municipalities. We need to operate as a single team in terms of document management and collaboration. That is our priority

Andrey Chertkov

Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic