Tunisia has just crossed a historic milestone: artificial intelligence – yes, the real one, with algorithms and all the tralala – has been officially used to develop the next development plan. It was Mohamed El Kou, Chairman of the Development Plans Commission and major projects at the National Council of Regions and Districts that said it today on Express FM.
Because finally, who would have believed that AI, after having conquered medicine, finance and even failures, would find itself summoned in a PowerPoint meeting at the Ministry of the Economy, with Excel sheets of 2003 and fax that shouts with each shipment? And yet, Tunisian technological miracle obliges, algorithms have classified national priorities. Besides, we can easily imagine the AI Reply: “After analyzing the available data, the first priority is … to have available data”.
Mohamed El Kou wanted to reassure skeptics: “AI does not replace human intelligence”. And it’s true. We can feel that the human, in this story, has kept their hands to … formulate a plan full of good recycled intentions: knowledge economy, social justice, renewable energies, reduction of regional disparities. All in a ready-to-abort technocratic packaging.
And then, of course, there were 50 training sessions. Fifty ! No doubt how to pronounce “blockchain” without grimacing, or how to insert gifs into a slideshow of regional strategy. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence, she was crying gently in a corner, forced to analyze 2014 statistics with titles as “objectives not achieved – to be taken up in 2028”.
But let’s give back to Caesar what is to El Kou: he is right on one point. Those who refuse the digital transition will be marginalized. And here we are not talking about rural areas forgotten since 1967, no, but of those who have not yet learned to differentiate a messaging application from a governance platform.
In short, the future is bright. The 2026-2030 development plan is ready. Artificial intelligence validated it. And if nothing works, we can always accuse the algorithm. After all, it is well known: “It is not the plan that is bad, it is the AI that has misunderstood our priorities”.
