Cyprus aims to ensure AI benefits are shared more widely

Cyprus aims to develop at least 3,000 artificial intelligence professionals by 2032, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou said on Tuesday, outlining government plans to widen access to the technology and ensure its benefits are shared more broadly.

Speaking at a discussion titled “Artificial Intelligence: Does it promote growth or deepen inequality?” at the 22nd Annual Economist Cyprus Summit in Nicosia, Damianou said Cyprus should not simply seek to win the global artificial intelligence race, but concentrate on applying the technology in areas where it could deliver the greatest value.

His remarks came a day after he presented the deputy ministry’s €212.2 million budget programme for 2027 to the House finance committee, setting out further investment in public sector digitisation, government services and the technology sector.

The government’s budget includes €150.2m for the deputy ministry itself and a further €62m for projects and initiatives across other government departments.

Damianou outlined three initiatives intended to strengthen artificial intelligence skills and broaden access to the technology, covering education, workforce training and the needs of businesses.

The first is an Artificial Intelligence Literacy Framework, through which AI and critical thinking will be incorporated into schools, while teachers will retain control over the educational process.

The second is a National AI Skills Observatory, intended to connect training programmes with the changing requirements of the labour market.

The third, FutureAI CY, will provide reskilling programmes for workers and small businesses, helping them adapt to the growing use of artificial intelligence.

Damianou said the initiatives formed part of what he described as a “Social Contract for AI”, under which technology should “empower people rather than silently replace them”.

He stressed that the benefits of artificial intelligence had to be made accessible to a wider section of society, warning that the digital divide was increasingly becoming a divide in access to knowledge and the opportunities offered by new technology.

“The bottleneck is not the machine. It is our organisations,” he said, arguing that productivity gains would depend on how businesses and public organisations adapted their operations to make effective use of artificial intelligence.

He also called for greater access to open AI models and shared computing infrastructure, arguing that the benefits of the technology should not be confined to a small number of major providers.

“Artificial intelligence will drive growth. Whether it widens inequalities is a matter of choice, and we have time to act,” Damianou stated.

The discussion also heard warnings from Greece about the risk that unequal access to artificial intelligence could create new economic and social divisions, particularly between those who can use the technology effectively and those who cannot.

Demosthenis Anagnostopoulos, general secretary of Information Systems and Digital Governance at Greece’s Ministry of Digital Governance, said artificial intelligence offered considerable opportunities to increase productivity but could also lead to the concentration of economic power in the hands of a few.

He argued that governments should act as facilitators of AI adoption in both the public and private sectors, rather than limiting their role to that of regulators.

Anagnostopoulos pointed to significant differences in adoption rates among businesses, saying that in 2025 around 50 to 55 per cent of large European companies were using AI tools, compared with just 17 per cent of small businesses.

The disparity was also evident between countries, with business use of AI reaching approximately 42 per cent in Denmark, while Greece and Cyprus were both close to 9 per cent.

He cited measures taken by the Greek government to broaden access, including the provision of 60,000 licences for digital tools to public sector employees and training for 30,000 workers.

Free training programmes had also been made available to members of the public, as part of efforts to improve digital skills and encourage wider use of the technology.

Turning to infrastructure, Anagnostopoulos said Greece’s Daedalus supercomputer, ranked 31st worldwide, was expected to begin providing artificial intelligence services from the following month.

The system is expected to offer training facilities and the capacity to run AI models, while Greece’s Pharos ecosystem will focus on developing models and promoting their use.

He said such infrastructure was important not only for Greece but also for broader European ambitions in artificial intelligence.