AI in Government

Governments around the world are experimenting with AI to better detect, deter and prevent corruption. AI is helping oversight bodies analyse large volumes of financial, legal and administrative data — revealing fraud, conflicts of interest, and suspicious patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed. By transforming how institutions understand risk and process information, AI is opening new frontiers for public integrity.

The current state of play

AI is gradually becoming a strategic tool for actors responsible for promoting integrity and combating corruption — including anti-corruption agencies, supreme audit institutions, and internal oversight bodies. As the technology advances rapidly, AI offers unique capabilities to:

• Detect fraudulent activity using anomaly detection and pattern recognition. Algorithms can scan entire populations of transactions — not just samples — to flag outliers, inconsistencies or suspicious behaviour. This enhances the ability to uncover fraud or misallocation of public funds at scale.
• Improve knowledge management and text analysis. Tools like named entity recognition and large language models (LLMs) support the rapid synthesis of documents, reports, and case files. This enables faster auditing, legal analysis, and investigation.
• Anticipate corruption risks through predictive analytics. AI systems can help anticipate potential corruption and fraud risks and other issues, enabling the prioritisation of cases for further human examination. Even in institutions without a mandate for ex-ante action, predictive tools enable smarter resource allocation and more effective prevention.

Examples from practice

• Brazil: Generative AI for audits. ChatTCU, developed by Brazil’s Federal Court of Accounts, assists auditors by retrieving case information, interpreting regulations and summarising findings. It is now being adapted by institutions across Latin America.
• European Union: Ownership anomaly detection. The DATACROS system analyses corporate ownership structures across 44 countries to flag corruption and money laundering risks. It supports both investigative work and public transparency.
• United Kingdom: Fighting benefit fraud. The Department for Work & Pensions uses AI to detect inconsistencies in Universal Credit claims. The system is backed by fairness safeguards, including human oversight and random audits to avoid automation bias (i.e., over-reliance on AI).
• Colombia: Forecasting corruption risk in contracts. The VigIA system uses AI to flag high-risk public contracts before violations occur, enabling the City of Bogotá to focus investigative resources more strategically.
• Lithuania: AI for corruption risk analysis. As part of ongoing work with the OECD, the Special Investigation Service of Lithuania is developing an AI tool related to corruption risk indicators to help officers evaluate corruption risks related to EU funds.

Untapped potential and the way forward

AI offers integrity bodies new ways to anticipate and address corruption risks – from analysing contracts and legislation to detecting hidden networks of influence. As tools become more advanced, they could support early warning systems and dynamic risk monitoring. To unlock this potential, governments must ensure AI use is transparent, ethical and accountable. Investing in human oversight, practical guidance and cross-institutional collaboration will be key to scaling trusted solutions.

Learn more

Review a detailed section on AI in fighting corruption and promoting public integrity here.

Other relevant OECD work:

• Anti-Corruption and Integrity Outlook (2024)
• Using digital technology to strengthen oversight of public procurement in Portugal: The use of data analytics and machine learning by the Tribunal de Contas (2025)
• Project Helene: An Oracle – CGU – OECD collaboration under the Tech Connect for Integrity program (2025)