A Historical Journey: The Birth and Growth of GIC 1919
In the mid-2000s, as Sri Lanka embarked on its ambitious e-Sri Lanka initiative to digitize public services and bridge the information gap between citizens and government, the Government Information Centre (GIC), accessible via the short code 1919, emerged as a flagship project. Launched on August 24, 2006, spearheaded by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the GIC was designed as a one-stop call center to provide accurate, multilingual information on government services. This public-private partnership marked a significant milestone in Sri Lanka’s digital governance efforts, aiming to make government more accessible and citizen-friendly.
Initially part of ICTA’s Re-Engineering Government (Re-Gov) Programme, the GIC addressed a critical pre-initiative challenge: fragmented access to government information, often requiring citizens to navigate multiple agencies or endure long waits. Operating in Sinhala, Tamil, and English—the country’s three official languages—the center quickly became a vital resource, offering details on everything from public services to administrative procedures. By 2013, it had expanded to cover information on over 1,000 services from hundreds of institutions, with annual reports highlighting its operational model, including trend analysis of incoming calls and business strategies for sustainability.
Over the years, the GIC celebrated key achievements, such as its eighth anniversary in 2014, underscoring its role in fostering a more responsive government. By the late 2010s, it had integrated into broader open government efforts, with commitments in Sri Lanka’s Open Government Partnership action plans to enhance its online platform and improve data accessibility. Today, the GIC provides information on 1,487 services across 656 institutions, serving as the go-to hub for citizens dialing 1919 from within Sri Lanka or internationally. Its evolution reflects Sri Lanka’s steady progress in e-governance, but as digital demands surge, the need for innovation has become evident.
Rising Challenges and the Imperative for Digital Transformation
Despite its successes, the GIC faces modern hurdles. With Sri Lanka’s population exceeding 22 million and a growing digital-savvy demographic, citizen expectations have shifted toward instant, personalized, and multichannel interactions. Language diversity, accessibility for underserved groups like the elderly and rural populations, and the sheer volume of queries strain the traditional call center model. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the demand for contactless services, exposing gaps in scalability and real-time responsiveness.
Aligning with national strategies like the Digital Government and Digital Economy frameworks, ICTA recognizes that the GIC must evolve beyond voice-based support. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) enters the picture, promising to transform the center into a proactive, inclusive platform. Recent analyses highlight data gaps in governance that AI can bridge, enabling smarter, more efficient public services.
The AI Modernization Initiative: A Strategic Workgroup Takes Shape
In a bold move to address these challenges, ICTA has convened a dedicated Workgroup on Modernizing the GIC Service with AI. The workgroup is tasked with guiding the design, development, and phased rollout of an AI-enhanced platform. This initiative aims to convert the GIC into a multilingual conversational AI service, leveraging large language models (LLMs) for natural language processing, speech technologies like speech-to-text (STT), and text-to-speech (TTS) for voice interactions, and agentic AI for autonomous task handling.
A vetted knowledge base is essential as the core for trustworthy responses, ensuring accuracy and inclusivity across Sinhala, Tamil, and English. This builds on ongoing national AI efforts, such as the development of Sinhala and Tamil datasets for TTS, as part of ICTA’s broader push toward an AI-centered trilingual GIC. The platform will integrate seamlessly with existing call center infrastructure while expanding to digital channels like web chatbots and agentic AI interfaces.
Key Objectives, Scope, and Deliverables
The workgroup’s objectives are multifaceted, focusing on strategic vision, system architecture, content management, ethical guidelines, pilot evaluations, and scaling strategies. Specifically, it will:
- Define Vision and Scope: Set the direction for a citizen-centric AI platform.
- Guide Architecture: Oversee integration of modular components like LLMs, speech tech, and a centralized knowledge base.
- Advise on Content: Structure a vetted content store with multilingual coverage and auditability.
- Establish Standards: Promote transparency, data protection, and responsible AI use.
- Evaluate Pilots: Offer insights from prototypes and user feedback.
- Plan Scaling: Develop a blueprint for resilient growth.
The scope includes designing user journeys, recommending architectures, sourcing training data for local languages, and ensuring accessibility for vulnerable groups.
Deliverables promise tangible outcomes, including a strategic framework, technology blueprint, knowledge base design, governance guidelines, pilot reports, and rollout recommendations. These align with pilots like AI-enhanced chatbots for the 1919 service, which could revolutionize citizen engagement.
Broader Impact in Sri Lanka’s AI Ecosystem
This GIC modernization is part of Sri Lanka’s accelerating AI landscape. ICTA, as the interim lead for the National AI Policy, has established an AI Advisory Committee to drive ethical adoption and economic growth. Workshops on AI for public service efficiency underscore the government’s commitment to positioning Sri Lanka as a regional AI hub. By targeting a digital economy expansion from USD 3.5 billion in 2025 to USD 15 billion by 2030, such projects could boost efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance inclusivity.
Economically, an AI-powered GIC could streamline operations, minimize human errors, and provide analytics for better policy-making. For businesses, it opens avenues for partnerships in AI development, cloud services, and data management, fostering innovation in a post-pandemic recovery phase.
Looking Ahead: A Smarter, More Inclusive Future
As Sri Lanka navigates its digital transformation, the GIC’s AI upgrade represents a pivotal step toward a responsive, equitable government. From its humble beginnings in 2006 to this forward-looking initiative, the 1919 service is poised to set new benchmarks in public sector innovation. With careful governance and stakeholder collaboration, it could not only meet citizen needs but also propel the nation into a thriving AI-driven era.
