To help government agencies overcome three major challenges, namely “hesitancy to adopt, high costs, and limited applications,” encountered during AI implementation, the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) has established the "Government AI Application Sandbox" (TryAI Platform). This platform is the first to introduce a “try-before-you-buy” mechanism by providing a dedicated environment that fully complies with government cybersecurity regulations. This enables agencies to verify their actual needs before procurement, thereby not only ensuring that taxpayers’ money is spent precisely where it is needed, but also, through an AI Bots Marketplace model of “government posing the problems, industry delivering the solutions,” incentivizing the development of Taiwan’s domestic AI software industry, thus fostering a new ecosystem of public-private collaboration.

Since its launch on March 31 this year, the TryAI Platform has demonstrated significant results. Currently, the platform features 32 language models, including TAIDE, Gemini, and ChatGPT, and 20 general-purpose AI tools, and is now in use by over 30 agencies. Among them, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has utilized the platform to develop a powerful tool for government use. This has drastically shortened the manual preparation of meeting minutes, which originally required 30 to 40 hours, to just 6 hours, an efficiency increase of more than fivefold. Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Finance, and the Public Construction Commission of the Executive Yuan have applied AI to practical operations such as report review, document research, and procurement law Q&A, confirming that AI can effectively mitigate administrative burdens and enhance the efficiency of public services.

MODA further explained that the TryAI Platform is not only a tool library, but also an incubator for Taiwan’s domestic AI industry. To help agencies adopt AI with confidence, MODA identified shared needs across government agencies (e.g., document drafting assistants and press release generators) and partnered with domestic IT service providers to develop and list specialized generative AI tools on the AI Bots Marketplace. Staff can trial the tools for free, then, upon confirming that they meet their requirements, swiftly procure them via a joint supply contract. This model not only minimizes the trial-and-error cost for government agencies but also generates precise market opportunities for Taiwanese AI software companies.

Looking ahead, MODA will continue to refine the TryAI Platform environment and deepen public-private partnerships by hosting events such as the "Digital Government AI Solution Matching Briefing Session." Through these efforts, MODA hopes to establish a virtuous cycle where the government initiates the demands and the industry develops the solutions, thereby accelerating the implementation of AI tools in the public sector, jointly building a smarter, highly efficient digital government, and ultimately providing citizens with better public services.