Cyprus National AI Strategy 2032

What it is

The Cyprus National AI Strategy 2032, subtitled a strategic blueprint, is the Republic of Cyprus’s draft national plan for artificial intelligence. It was prepared by the National AI Taskforce, an advisory group of 11 members from the public and private sectors and academia, chaired by the Chief Scientist for Research, Innovation and Technology. The Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy published it for public consultation on 21 July 2026, with comments open until 31 August 2026.

The strategy’s vision is that by 2032 Cyprus will be recognised as the leading trusted AI hub in the Eastern Mediterranean, a reliable European jurisdiction for AI-enabled services and a bridge between the EU and neighbouring regions. It treats compliance with the EU AI Act and the GDPR as a competitive advantage rather than a constraint.

Who it applies to

The strategy is a government document. Its governance model and control framework are written for ministries and public bodies, and it says every ministry and organisation deploying AI will be required to maintain its own Applied AI Strategy, aligned with the EU AI Act and refreshed every three years.

For the private sector it sets direction rather than rules. It names eight priority sectors for AI adoption, namely government and the public sector, financial services and fintech, healthcare and life sciences, tourism and hospitality, legal services, education, shipping and maritime, and entrepreneurship. Suppliers to the Cypriot government will meet its controls through procurement, since the strategy expects approved delivery partners and approval gates before purchase.

What it requires

Eight objectives. The strategy sets eight national objectives. They are to establish Cyprus as a trusted jurisdiction for AI, raise productivity through responsible adoption, build an inclusive AI ecosystem, transform public services while keeping human oversight, develop AI skills and talent, secure sovereign and interoperable data and infrastructure, embed governance, ethics and accountability across all AI use, and build sovereign capability through partnerships.

Principles. Its guardrails are human-centred design, trust and transparency proportionate to risk, compliance by design, security and resilience, fairness and non-discrimination, and human oversight. High-risk or citizen-facing systems are to keep a human in the loop, and citizens keep the right to explanation, contestation and human review in sensitive areas such as health and social benefits.

Governance bodies. The strategy proposes a National AI Authority as the policy-setting and execution body and governance gatekeeper, and an Interministerial AI Council to manage the national portfolio and resolve cross-government issues. The National AI Taskforce stays as the independent advisory body. Specialised committees would cover infrastructure, ethics and values, misinformation and security, and skills. In each ministry, an AI Officer would coordinate AI activity and an AI Champion would drive adoption.

A control framework across the lifecycle. For government AI, controls run from design and procurement through deployment, monitoring and decommissioning. They include risk classification of use cases by impact and potential harm, mandatory legal, ethical and data protection assessments for high-impact systems, approval gates before procurement, deployment, scaling or material change, defined human oversight and intervention, ongoing monitoring of performance and unintended effects, and procedures for incident reporting, escalation and remediation. Controls are proportionate, with higher-risk uses facing stricter documentation and assurance.

Key dates

The draft was published on 21 July 2026 and the consultation closed on 31 August 2026. The strategy runs to 2032 and includes an implementation timeline and national KPIs. This page reviews the consultation draft.

How it relates to other frameworks

The binding rules sit elsewhere. The EU AI Act applies directly, supervised in Cyprus by the Commissioner of Communications and the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection, as set out on the Cyprus AI Act governance page. The strategy says it aims to support those authorities, not replace them.

Its ethics pillar follows the OECD AI Principles. Its lifecycle controls map closely to an AI impact assessment and a use case intake process, and to the management system in ISO/IEC 42001.

A note on this page

This is Aicura’s summary of the consultation draft of the Cyprus National AI Strategy 2032. It is not the strategy itself and the final version may differ. Read the document published on the e-Consultation platform and check the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy for the adopted text.