Members of Latvia’s parliament should make use of artificial intelligence to receive analytical information more quickly and advance their initiatives, Saeima Speaker Edvards Smiltēns (United List) said on Friday in an interview with Latvian Television’s “Rīta panorāma” programme.
According to Smiltēns, the Saeima’s Analytical Service needs significantly greater capacity and faster working processes.
He hopes to achieve this through the use of artificial intelligence, which would make it possible to process large volumes of data and provide MPs with answers almost immediately.
The politician stressed that MPs should be able to put forward initiatives without delay, rather than waiting three or six months for a commissioned study to be completed.
In his view, Latvia, as a small country, must be able to operate quickly and flexibly.
Alongside strengthening analytical support, Smiltēns wants to discuss with parliamentary groups the possibility of deploying parliamentary staff more flexibly across committee activities.
For example,
when the workload of the Budget and Finance (Taxation) Committee increases significantly during the examination of the state budget, staff from other committees could be temporarily assigned to assist it.
As workloads change, those employees could then be reassigned to support other parliamentary committees.
Smiltēns also proposes allowing each committee to recruit an expert for a fixed period, with more flexible procedures for hiring and dismissing such specialists.
According to the politician, the aim of these changes would be to give MPs better opportunities to achieve tangible results in their work.
Smiltēns also wants parliamentary subcommittees to have clearly defined objectives, potentially including deadlines and measurable outcomes.
He believes this would encourage more focused work and allow journalists to monitor the progress and results achieved.