Unequal AI readiness: institutional and digital disparities in e-government across the European Union

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being integrated into public governance, enabling more adaptive, predictive, and autonomous public services. Despite its potential, the extent to which European Union member states are ready to adopt AI in electronic government remains underexplored. To address this gap, AI readiness across European Union countries is assessed and clustered based on institutional and technological conditions. Using secondary data from Eurostat and the European Commission’s electronic Government Benchmark, exploratory factor analysis reveals two latent dimensions: Digital Skills and Electronic Government Engagement, and Transparency and Electronic Government Service Availability. These dimensions are used as inputs for hierarchical and k-means clustering, resulting in six distinct country groups reflecting varying profiles of AI readiness. Our findings suggest that effective AI integration is associated with both institutional capacity and citizen preparedness, linking digital divide patterns to AI readiness levels. This study provides a comparative, data-driven assessment of AI readiness across the European Union, identifying latent dimensions that can inform targeted policy interventions and support inclusive digital transformation.