On October 26, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Narek Mkrtchyan, Director of the Armenian Office of Asian Development Bank Paolo Spantigatti, and Executive Director of "Nork" Technology Center Anahit Parzyan participated in the presentation of the research project "Artificial Intelligence in the Social Protection Sector" jointly implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Asian Development Bank and the "Nork" Technology Center.

During the presentation, several issues related to the importance and relevance of the research project implementation were presented. In his welcoming speech, Minister Narek Mkrtchyan emphasized the importance of using artificial intelligence tools in social protection. "I think the research will help further increase and involve artificial intelligence tools in developing social protection policies. It will also allow making more effective and targeted needs assessment decisions, to have data that will enable us to understand what kind of problems and challenges we have, and what possibilities there are for their settlement."

Turning to the activities of the Asian Development Bank, Paolo Spantigatti noted that since 2013, the Armenian office of the Asian Development Bank has been implementing several programs aimed at poverty eradication, institutional capacity development, etc. According to the latter, cooperation in the field of social protection is relatively new for the Asian Development Bank, and they willingly agreed to support the implementation of the project. We can find more long-term and fundamental solutions to support vulnerable groups with new tools.

Wendy Walker, Head of the Social Development Thematic Group of the Asian Development Bank, also delivered a video message at the event. Emphasizing the importance of using digital innovations in strengthening the social protection system and developing resistance, the latter noted that the Republic of Armenia is one of the pioneers from this point of view. We hope that it will change the systems' capabilities and become one of the critical use cases of digital innovation in the field of social protection."

Anahit Parzyan, executive director of the "Nork" technology center, also emphasized the importance of practical cooperation with the Armenian office of the Asian Development Bank and noted that it would be possible to improve the quality of digital services with joint efforts.

"It is important to have innovative data-based decision-making mechanisms at the basis of increasing digital services by the state; this research project is for solving those problems, the purpose of which is also predictive situational solutions that will contribute to making more accurate decisions," said Anahit Parzyan.

According to the RA Ministry of ASD, within the framework of the event, Minister Narek Mkrtchyan handed over a letter of thanks to Paolo Spantigatti, director of the Armenian office of the Asian Development Bank, for practical cooperation. Within the project's scope, the applicability of artificial intelligence and machine learning to the needs assessment mechanisms was tested, the effectiveness of employment programs was analyzed, analytical simulations were carried out to develop data-based policies, and new clusters of vulnerable groups were created.