Government institutions should avoid being overly enthusiastic about adopting artificial intelligence (AI) solutions until they are properly tested and proven trustworthy, a senior official said on Friday.

Rohit Bhardwaj, Deputy Director General at the Data Informatics & Innovation Division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), emphasised that AI adoption must be cautious and evidence-based.

“Institutions need not be gung-ho about AI-based solutions until they are tested and trustworthy,” he said, underlining the importance of reliability and validation before large-scale deployment in government systems.

Bhardwaj also stressed the need for departments to prepare their data infrastructure to effectively leverage AI technologies. He suggested that government bodies should make their datasets AI-ready by ensuring files are structured and readable by computers.

“There should be context files, there should be semantics, and there should be metadata,” he said, highlighting the importance of storing information in structured formats. Such measures, he noted, would enable smoother integration of AI tools and improve efficiency in data-driven decision-making.

His remarks come amid growing interest in deploying AI across public administration, with policymakers increasingly focusing on responsible and secure adoption of emerging technologies.