Oxford’s Government AI Readiness Index 2025 released
The 2025 Government AI Readiness Index from Oxford Insights points to uneven global preparedness for public-sector AI, with governance capacity, data foundations, and skills emerging as the main dividing lines between countries.
Oxford Insights has published the Government AI Readiness Index 2025, providing a comparative assessment of how well governments worldwide are positioned to adopt and govern artificial intelligence (AI). Beyond rankings, the index surfaces several clear takeaways about what currently enables, or limits, effective public-sector use of AI.
A first key takeaway is that governance matters more than technology alone. Countries that score highly tend to have clear national AI strategies, defined accountability structures, and ethical or human-rights-based frameworks guiding public-sector AI use. Where these elements are missing, AI initiatives are more fragmented and harder to scale, even in countries with strong technical capacity.
Second, the index highlights persistent gaps in public-sector skills and institutional capacity. Many governments continue to struggle with recruiting and retaining AI, data, and digital policy expertise. This limits their ability to commission, oversee, and evaluate AI systems, increasing dependence on external vendors and raising risks around transparency and accountability.
A third takeaway concerns data readiness and infrastructure. Reliable data governance, interoperable systems, and secure digital infrastructure remain unevenly distributed across countries. Weak data foundations constrain the types of AI applications governments can realistically deploy and amplify risks related to bias, data quality, and cybersecurity.
The index also shows that AI readiness is not confined to high-income countries, but it does correlate strongly with long-term investment and policy coherence. Some middle-income countries perform comparatively well by prioritising digital government reforms, open data initiatives, and cross-ministerial coordination, while others with greater resources underperform due to policy fragmentation.
Another recurring theme in the 2025 edition is the growing importance of trust, transparency, and public legitimacy. Oxford Insights notes that governments are increasingly expected to demonstrate how AI systems align with public values, protect rights, and deliver measurable benefits. Readiness, therefore, includes not only technical deployment but also mechanisms for oversight, redress, and public engagement.
Overall, the Government AI Readiness Index 2025 suggests that the main challenges ahead are institutional rather than purely technological. Building AI-ready governments will depend on sustained investment in skills, data governance, and regulatory capacity, alongside clearer rules on how AI should, and should not, be used in public administration.
The full index and country-level analysis are available on the Oxford Insights website.
