Artificial Intelligence is transforming public administration. But can it also transform the way we prepare public servants? Albania's experience suggests that while AI offers powerful new opportunities, the most valuable learning still begins with real-life experience.

When we talk about Artificial Intelligence (AI) in public administration, the conversation usually focuses on technology. We discuss process automation, data analytics, evidence-informed policymaking, and improving the delivery of public services. These developments are undoubtedly significant and are reshaping the way public institutions operate.

At the same time, this transformation has prompted us to ask a more fundamental question: How can we develop the competencies of civil servants more effectively through learning?

At a time when information is readily accessible and AI can generate answers within seconds, the value of training no longer lies simply in transferring knowledge. The real challenge is to help civil servants develop the ability to analyze complex situations, interpret legal frameworks correctly, collaborate across institutions, and make well-informed decisions in public interest.

This shift reflects a broader international trend. The OECD argues that future-ready public administrations require civil servants who can adapt, collaborate and solve increasingly complex problems, rather than simply apply established procedures (OECD, 2020)

This is why, at the Albanian School of Public Administration (ASPA), we have begun to rethink not only what we teach, but also how we teach. Our experience suggests that, even in the age of Artificial Intelligence, case-based learning remains one of the most effective approaches for developing the competencies that today's civil servants need.

From Knowledge Transfer to Competency Development

For many years, civil service training has been built around a familiar model: presenting legislation, administrative procedures and institutional frameworks. This approach remains essential, as no public official can perform effectively without understanding the legal and regulatory environment in which they operate.

However, experience has shown that knowing the law is only the starting point.

In almost every training session, once the legal framework has been presented, participants raise questions that go beyond legislation:

"What if this situation occurs in my institution?"

"How has a similar case been handled in practice?"

"What decision would you make in this situation?"

These questions reveal that participants are not simply looking for more information; they want to understand how knowledge can be applied in real-life situations.

This observation is consistent with one of the central principles of adult learning theory. Malcolm Knowles argued that adults learn most effectively when learning is relevant to their professional responsibilities, builds on their previous experience and focuses on solving real problems rather than memorizing information (Knowles, Holton & Swanson, 2015).

This is where learner-centered training methodologies—such as case studies, simulations, group work and problem-based learning—become particularly valuable.

Rather than asking participants to recall legal provisions, these approaches place them in realistic scenarios where they must analyze the facts, identify the key issues, interpret the relevant legal framework, weigh different options and justify the decisions they would make.

Likewise, David Kolb's experiential learning theory suggests that learning is most effective when individuals engage in a continuous cycle of concrete experience, reflection, conceptualization and active experimentation. Case studies and simulations naturally support this learning cycle by encouraging participants to connect theory with professional practice (Kolb, 1984).

In doing so, training moves beyond knowledge transfer and becomes a process of developing critical thinking, analytical skills, professional judgement and practical decision-making—the very competencies that public servants need to navigate the increasingly complex challenges of modern public administration.

This competency-based approach is increasingly recognized as a cornerstone of modern civil service development. According to the OECD, effective public administrations invest in lifelong learning and competency-based training that enables public servants to respond to rapidly changing policy environments rather than relying solely on technical knowledge (OECD, 2017).

In this way, training is no longer limited to transferring knowledge. Instead, it becomes a means of developing critical thinking, analytical skills and professional judgement.

Experience: Public Administration's Most Valuable Asset

Perhaps the greatest asset that public institutions possess is not their legislation, procedures or organizational charts, but the experience accumulated every day by the people who work within them.

Every labour inspection, public procurement procedure, citizen complaint, reform initiative or administrative decision contains valuable lessons that could help other public servants facing similar situations. Yet too often, this experience remains undocumented and never becomes part of an organization’s institutional knowledge.

Instead, it stays with individuals or within individual institutions. Over time, as staff move on or organizations change, much of that knowledge disappears. In many ways, this represents a missed opportunity.

When these experiences are transformed into case studies, they cease to be isolated stories confined to individual institutions or practitioners. Instead, they become valuable learning resources that preserve institutional knowledge and help prepare the next generation of civil servants. In this way, everyday professional experience evolves into a strategic asset for organizational learning, enabling institutions to retain institutional memory while fostering continuous professional development across the civil service.

The educational value of learning through authentic, real-world situations has long been recognized. Decades of experience with the Harvard Business School Case Method have shown that analyzing real cases develops professional judgement, critical thinking, problem-solving and decision-making more effectively than passive instruction. Rather than simply transmitting knowledge, case-based learning encourages participants to interpret evidence, debate alternative courses of action and apply theoretical concepts to the complex realities of public administration (Harvard Business School, Case Method Teaching).

This philosophy has increasingly shaped the way ASPA reviews and develops its training curricula. Over the past few years, we have observed that modules built around authentic cases from public administration generate far greater engagement, discussion and reflection than those based solely on theoretical presentations.

One example is the development of our new training module on child labour inspection. During its design, it quickly became clear that the theoretical content became significantly more meaningful when accompanied by real cases encountered by labour inspectors in the field.

These cases do much more than illustrate how legislation is applied. They create opportunities for participants to work in groups, participate in simulations, explore alternative approaches and justify their decisions. The classroom shifts from being a place where information is delivered to a space where professional experience is shared, challenged and transformed into learning.

Equally important, these case studies are never intended to be static. They can be continuously enriched with new experiences, legislative changes and emerging institutional practices. As a result, training materials remain relevant, dynamic and closely connected to the realities of public administration.

For ASPA, integrating case-based learning is not simply a methodological adjustment. It forms part of a broader transformation in how we understand professional development within the civil service.

Over recent years, curriculum review has involved much more than updating legislation or revising course content. These remain essential, as training programmes must reflect evolving legal frameworks, national strategies and public administration reform priorities.

At the same time, however, we began asking ourselves a more fundamental question:

How can we develop the competencies of civil servants more effectively through learning?

The answer has gradually led us towards a more dynamic model of learning—one that places experience, interaction and problem-solving at the center of the training process, while using technology, including Artificial Intelligence, as a tool to enrich learning rather than replace human judgement.

A good example of this transformation is the redesign of "Introduction to Public Administration," one of ASPA's core programmes for newly recruited civil servants during their probation period. The review went far beyond updating course topics or redistributing training hours. It involved rethinking the entire learning journey. Classroom training was combined with online learning, teaching materials were redesigned, training sequences were restructured, and greater emphasis was placed on methodologies that encourage active participation.

The objective was clear: training should no longer consist of experts speaking while participants listen. Instead, it should become a learning environment where competencies are developed through analysis, discussion and reflection.

This approach is now gradually being extended to other programmes. Alongside traditional classroom training, ASPA is expanding the use of blended learning by combining face-to-face sessions with online platforms, e-learning modules and digital tools that make learning more flexible, accessible and responsive to participants' needs.

Yet, regardless of the technologies involved, one element remains at the heart of this model: experience.

Case studies provide context. Simulations allow participants to test their responses in complex situations. Group discussions and coaching encourage them to reflect on their decision-making processes and learn from the experiences of their peers.

These methodologies are particularly well suited to adult learners because they encourage active participation, reflection and collaborative problem-solving rather than passive knowledge acquisition. Research on adult education consistently shows that professionals learn more effectively when they can relate new knowledge to authentic workplace experiences (Knowles et al., 2015; Kolb, 1984).

As a result, training becomes a collaborative process in which participants are no longer passive recipients of information but active contributors to the creation of knowledge.

At this point, a natural question arises.

If Artificial Intelligence can analyze documents, summarize information, generate learning materials and even suggest possible solutions, will it fundamentally change the way civil servants learn?

Our experience suggests that the answer is yes—but probably not in the way many people expect.

Artificial Intelligence does not replace trainers, nor does it replace the expertise and experience of public administration professionals. Instead, it has the potential to enrich the learning process and make it more interactive, adaptive and engaging.

This perspective is also reflected in European policy. The European Commission emphasizes that Artificial Intelligence should augment, rather than replace, human judgement in public decision-making, particularly where transparency, accountability and ethical considerations are essential.

It can help design new learning scenarios, generate simulations, develop practical exercises, tailor training materials to participants' needs and keep case studies up to date as legislation and administrative practices evolve.

Imagine a typical training session.

Participants begin by analyzing a real case drawn from public administration. After discussing the situation, they use an AI tool to explore alternative approaches, identify additional risks or compare how similar challenges have been addressed in other countries.

But the most valuable part of the exercise is not what the AI suggests.

Real learning begins with the conversation that follows.

Participants critically examine the AI's recommendations, compare them with Albanian legislation, institutional practice and professional standards, and debate which solution is the most appropriate. They justify their choices, challenge one another's reasoning and reflect on the potential consequences of different decisions.

In this context, Artificial Intelligence does not provide the final answer. Instead, it acts as a learning partner—one that encourages better questions, deeper analysis and more meaningful discussions.

Similarly, UNESCO highlights that AI should be used to enrich learning experiences by supporting reflection, personalization and interaction, while ensuring that human agency and critical thinking remain central to the learning process (UNESCO, 2021)

Ultimately, it is this combination of technology and human judgement that has the greatest potential to strengthen the competencies that modern public administrations increasingly need.

This is why we see Artificial Intelligence as a tool that enriches the learning process—not as a substitute for professional judgement.

After all, working in public administration is not simply about finding the right answer. It requires interpreting legislation, balancing competing interests, engaging with citizens, acting with integrity and making decisions that carry real consequences for society.

These are fundamentally human capabilities. And, paradoxically, the more advanced technology becomes, the more valuable these competencies will be.

This conclusion is consistent with recent global labour market evidence. The World Economic Forum identifies analytical thinking, resilience, creativity, lifelong learning and AI literacy among the most important competencies for the future workforce, highlighting that technological progress increases rather than diminishes the value of human skills (WEF, 2025).

If there is one lesson we have learned through ASPA's transformation of its training programmes, it is that professional development should not be viewed as a series of isolated courses. It should be understood as a continuous learning journey.

Public administration is evolving at an unprecedented pace. Digital transformation, Artificial Intelligence, institutional reforms, the European integration process and rising citizen expectations are continuously reshaping how public institutions operate. In such an environment, the way civil servants learn must evolve as well.

This means that training institutions can no longer limit themselves to periodically updating curricula. Their role is increasingly to create learning ecosystems where knowledge is continuously generated, shared and enriched through the everyday experience of public administration itself.

Every institution encounters situations that offer valuable learning opportunities: a complex administrative procedure, an organizational reform, a public consultation process, an inspection, an audit or a successful example of inter-institutional cooperation. When these experiences are documented and transformed into learning resources, they become part of an organization’s institutional memory rather than knowledge that disappears when people change roles or leave the organization.

Artificial Intelligence can play an important role in this process. It can help organize, classify and update case studies, identify recurring patterns, support the development of practical exercises and personalize learning materials according to participants' needs.

But technology does not create experience.

Experience is built through the daily work of civil servants, the decisions they make, the challenges they face and the solutions they develop in practice. AI can help organize this knowledge, make it easier to access and support its wider dissemination, but it cannot replace the human experience from which that knowledge originates.

For this reason, the challenge is not to choose between Artificial Intelligence and traditional learning methods.

The challenge is to build a model in which technology and human experience reinforce one another.

Emerging regulatory frameworks, including the European Union's AI Act, reinforce this principle by placing human oversight at the center of trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. This highlights that AI should support informed professional judgement rather than replace it.

Artificial Intelligence can make learning faster, more flexible and more personalized. It can help trainers design richer learning materials and enable participants to explore a wider range of scenarios and possible solutions. Yet it is case studies, simulations, professional dialogue, critical reflection and coaching that give learning its real depth and connect it to the realities of public administration.

Ultimately, the future of civil service learning will not be defined by technology alone. It will depend on our ability to combine the power of AI with the irreplaceable value of human judgement, professional experience and collaborative learning. That, in our view, is how we prepare public servants who are not only well informed, but also capable of making sound decisions in an increasingly complex world.

Ultimately, public administration needs more than professionals who know how to use technology. It needs professionals who can exercise sound judgement, collaborate effectively, make balanced decisions and act with integrity.

These are not competencies that can be acquired simply by reading legislation or by asking an AI platform for an answer. They are developed by engaging in real-life situations, reflecting on experience and learning through dialogue with colleagues.

They emerge through experience, reflection and dialogue—the very processes that adult learning scholars have identified for decades as the foundation of meaningful professional development. Artificial Intelligence can accelerate access to information, but it cannot replace the reflective learning process through which professional judgement is formed.

This is precisely why I believe that case-based learning is not a methodology of the past. On the contrary, it becomes even more valuable in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

The more technology becomes capable of providing information, the more important it is for people to develop the ability to interpret that information critically, apply it responsibly and use it ethically.

This is the direction ASPA has chosen to follow.

Our ambition is not simply to modernize training programmes or introduce new digital tools. It is to build a culture of continuous learning—one in which the everyday experience of public administration is transformed into shared knowledge, technology serves as a catalyst for innovation, and competency development remains at the heart of every learning programme.

Because, ultimately, the success of digital transformation should not be measured only by the technologies we adopt. It should be measured by our ability to equip public servants with the judgement, skills and values needed to use those technologies professionally, responsibly and always in the service of the public interest.

MPA - Elda Baguca
Head of the Development Unit
Directorate of Development and Quality Assurance
Albanian School of Public Administration (ASPA)

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