Prishtina, 3 September 2026
The Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, attended the opening of the “AI & Tech International Summit 2026” at AAB College in Prishtina.
Congratulating AAB College and its partners on organising the two-day event, which focuses on technology, innovation and artificial intelligence, Prime Minister Kurti said that the Summit brings together government, academia, industry and innovators to discuss one of the greatest transformations of our time.
“Artificial intelligence is advancing at extraordinary speed. What only a few years ago seemed experimental is rapidly becoming part of our time—in the way we work, learn, conduct research, build businesses and deliver public services. The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence will transform societies and economies. It already has. More important questions remain: How do we use it to create opportunities? How do we prepare our citizens and institutions? And how can we ensure that this transformation strengthens human potential?” said the Prime Minister.
Prime Minister Kurti also spoke about Kosovo’s great potential, as well as its capacity and opportunities to adopt new technologies.
“Digital transformation is a central part of the national development agenda. We have invested in connectivity, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity and the modernization of public administration. Our ‘eKosova’ platform has brought hundreds of public services together in a common digital environment. We are now moving towards a new generation of our public service portal—‘eKosova 2.0’—with more integrated, user-centred and AI-enabled services,” he stressed.
In his remarks, Prime Minister Kurti welcomed former German Minister of Defence Rudolf Scharping, who served from 1998 to 2002 and was awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa by AAB College. The Prime Minister thanked him for his valuable role and contribution to coordinating Germany’s political and military actions with the other NATO member states involved in the intervention in 1999.
Full speech by Prime Minister Kurti:
Dear Former Minister of Defense of Germany, Mr. Rudolf Scharping,
Dear Mr. Hajrulla Çeku, Minister of Education and Science,
Dear Ms. Mimoza Kusari-Lila, Minister of Industry, Entrepreneurship, Trade and Inovation,
Dear Mr. Lulzon Jagxhiu, Minister of Digitalization and Public Administration,
Our dear ambassadors, Kosovar ambassador to Berlin, Faruk Ajeti, and German Ambassador to Prishtina, Rainer Rudolf,
Dear Ambassador Petrit Malaj from Albania and Bernard Çobaj from Montenegro,
Distinguished keynote speakers, in particular dear Mr. Blerim Olluri, rector of AAB College,
Representatives of academia, the tech industry and our international partners,
Dear students and guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to join you today at the AI & Tech International Summit 2026.
I congratulate AAB College and its partners for bringing together government, academia, industry and innovators to discuss one of the most important transformations of our time.
Artificial intelligence is advancing at extraordinary speed. What only a few years ago appeared experimental is rapidly becoming part of our time in the manner of how we work, learn, conduct research, build businesses and deliver public services.
The question is no longer whether AI will transform our societies and economies. It already has.
The more important questions are: How do we use it to create opportunities? How do we prepare our people and institutions? And how do we ensure that this transformation strengthens human potential?
These questions cannot be answered by governments, industry and academia in isolation. That is why gatherings such as this Summit matter.
For Kosova, this transformation represents a special opportunity.
We are a young country, with a young population, a dynamic tech sector and a strong capacity to adopt new technologies. Our ambition should not simply be to follow technological change. We should actively participate in and contribute to it.
Over the past several years, we have been building the foundations for that ambition.
Digital transformation is a central part of our national development agenda. We have been investing in connectivity, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity and the modernization of public administration.
Our eKosova platform has brought hundreds of public services into a common digital environment. We are now moving toward a new generation of our service portal – eKosova 2.0, with more integrated, user-centered and AI-enabled services.
We are redesigning services around life events, strengthening interoperability and data infrastructure, modernizing government networks, moving toward cloud infrastructure and investing in cybersecurity.
These foundations have prepared us for the next stage of our digital transformation, and AI will increasingly be part of it.
For government, AI can make public services easier to access, more personalized and proactive. It can help institutions use information more effectively, reduce administrative burden and improve decision-making.
For our economy, AI creates opportunities for Kosova’s technology companies to move further up the global value chain, from providing technology services to developing advanced products and platforms.
For education, it can generate both opportunities and responsibilities. We must prepare our young people not simply to use technology, but to create and compete in an economy increasingly shaped by AI.
But technological capability alone is not enough.
As AI becomes more powerful, trust, accountability, privacy, cybersecurity, transparency and human oversight likewise become more important. Our objective should not simply be to adopt AI quickly, but to adopt it responsibly, strategically and in ways that create real value for society.
Countries like Kosova also have an opportunity to leapfrog legacy technologies and ways of working. But this requires investment in people, cooperation between government, then universities and the private sector, and an environment where young people can experiment, innovate and build.
The decisions we make today will determine whether we simply consume technologies developed elsewhere or become creators, innovators and contributors to the AI economy.
In other words, we have to use it responsibly, meaning that besides focusing on speed scale and endless optimization, we also need to become a better society through using IA, by having thriving every individual member of it.
Today, I am very pleased to see that here among us is Rudolf Scharping, the German politician from the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who from 1998 to 2002 served as Germany’s Minister of Defense. So precisely during the years of the war in Kosovo, in those dark times for the European continent, when the Milosevic regime in Serbia was carrying out ethnic cleansing of Kosovo and genocide against the Albanians and when 19 NATO member states were engaged in the bombing campaign over Yugoslavia, as Minister of Defense, Mr. Scharping played an important role in coordinating Germany’s military and political actions with other NATO countries.
In particular, we will never forget the Conference “Humanities and Stability in Southeast Europe”, which took place in Bonn, where on April 1st, 1999, Scharping made public and denounced the “Horseshoe” plan, a genocidal project of the Serbian state for the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo. Therefore, even today, from here, we say thank you to Mr. Scharping.
For Kosova, our choice should be clear: we should be ambitious.
We should build on our digital foundations, invest in our people and technology ecosystem, and create the conditions for Kosova to participate fully in the next technological era.
I hope this Summit contributes to that ambition through the ideas, partnerships and initiatives that emerge here.
I wish you a productive and inspiring AI & Tech International Summit 2026.
Thank you!
