Back-
Working session on the ‘Role of the Ombudsman in the Digital Era’ with focus on AI
On 10 August 2026 the Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO) hosted the third meeting of the All-Island Forum on Ombudsman and AI with representatives from Ombudsman offices across the country. The chair, Nuala Ward (OCO) was delighted to welcome Munish Ramlal, the Ombudsman Metropool Amsterdam and his team, as part of their drive to put human rights, fairness and accountability at the heart of AI.
Citizens and governments all over the world are dealing with digitalisation.
Fortunately, this often goes very well. However, there are also risks, and there are times when citizens may encounter difficulties due to digitalisation, for example when requesting a document, when in contact with a chat bot or for instance when the government website is not inclusive and accessible.
In this working session the institution drew special attention to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and amongst the topics discussed was AI related issues affecting children and young people, holding governments to account for the ethical use of AI as well as wider challenges and opportunities for AI and complaints handling.
On the theme of ‘Digital Dignity, Fairness and the Future Role of AI’ they gathered input for the next draft of the Ombudsman Principles for Digital Dignity and Fairness and discussed whether AI should be recognised as a distinct principle or incorporated across all principles. On the theme of ‘AI in Society: What Are Ombudsman Offices Seeing?’, the institution explored how AI is affecting citizens and whether Ombudsman offices are beginning to see related issues emerge through their work and we discussed AI-related issues affecting children, young people and the wider public. And on the theme of ‘AI and Complaints Handling: Challenges and Opportunities’ the institutions explored how AI may be changing the complaints landscape and Ombudsman practice and shared insights and learnings on complainants using AI tools to draft submissions and correspondence.
It was a very insightful day and please feel free to contact the Ombudsman office as they are happy to share insights and are very open to take this dialogue further together.
This All-Island Forum on Ombudsman and AI working session was organised to contribute to the initiative on the ‘Role of the Ombudsman in the Digital Era’ and help ensure that governments and public bodies treat citizens, residents fairly and with dignity when using digital systems and data.
Source: Ombudsman for Children’s Office (OCO), Ireland and Ombudsman Metropolitan Amsterdam, The Netherlands
