The Complete Guide to Using AI in the Government Industry in Cambodia in 2025

Cambodia's government in 2025 is moving from policy conversation to concrete planning: the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication opened public consultations on a draft National AI Strategy that lays out six strategic priorities and 41 measures to boost skills, data infrastructure, digital government and ethical AI (Cambodia draft National AI Strategy public consultation (Lexology)), while a parallel digital strategy targets digitalizing up to 80% of high‑demand, low‑complexity public services by 2028 to make government more efficient and citizen‑friendly (Strategy on the Development of Electronic Services for Business 2025–2028 (Khmer Times)).

Paired with a first-in‑more‑than‑a‑decade civil service census covering about 232,000 staff, these moves mean practical AI skills are no longer optional - courses like Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work teach staff how to use tools, write effective prompts, and apply AI across everyday public‑sector tasks to turn strategy into safer, faster services (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work registration).

“Digital technology - particularly recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) - has become an essential part of everyday life, education, business, and public service delivery. It now permeates all socio-economic activities and serves as a vital catalyst for growth and economic resilience.” - Aun Pornmoniroth

Cambodia's AI landscape is anchored by a clear government lead and fast-growing partnerships: the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPTC) has driven the draft National AI Strategy - now out for public comment after a deep‑dive workshop and a series of ministerial consultations - and the process lays out six strategic priorities and 41 measures to scale skills, data, digital government and ethical AI (see MPTC's draft National AI Strategy public consultation announcement MPTC draft National AI Strategy public consultation announcement); meanwhile multi‑stakeholder convenings like the Cambodia AI Forum (Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh, 25 Nov 2024) brought roughly 100 invited technology leaders, regional experts and academics together to discuss generative AI, Khmer NLP, computer vision and even the official launch of TranslateKh (Cambodia AI Forum 2024 event page), showing how policy, research and practice are being stitched into one practical ecosystem.

Complementing policy and dialogue, private‑sector cooperation is moving into operational territory: Axiata's MoU with MPTC aims to boost cybersecurity capability and talent development - an essential backstop as pilots and digital services scale across ministries (Axiata–MPTC cybersecurity MoU announcement).

The result is a compact institutional framework - government strategy, forums for cross‑sector learning, and telco partnerships - that turns high‑level ambition into governable pilots and workforce pipelines, much like a launchpad where policy meets practice.

“In an increasingly digital world, robust cybersecurity is not just a necessity but a foundational element for sustainable economic growth and societal well‑being.” - Vivek Sood, Axiata Group

The Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2025–2030 (Version 5) is Cambodia's working blueprint for turning AI ambition into action: it was produced after more than a year of drafting, 12 internal meetings and two rounds of technical review with UN‑ESCAP, and the current version (uploaded 2 July 2025) frames six strategic priorities and 41 concrete measures that span skills, data and infrastructure, digital government, sectoral adoption, ethics, and R&D (the full English draft is available as a downloadable PDF Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Version 5 (English PDF)).

The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications has sequenced the process carefully - two UN‑ESCAP consultations in February–March, a deep‑dive workshop on 7–8 April and multiple bilateral meetings through May - before opening a public consultation in June and planning a national workshop to finalise the text in early July (see the MPTC press release on the deep‑dive workshop MPTC press release: Deep‑dive workshop on Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy).

Practically, the strategy shifts the conversation from abstract benefits to an implementation playbook - a reminder that Cambodia's AI plan is not a single policy memo but a layered set of 41 measures that will need coordinated training, data governance and pilot testing to move from paper to public service impact.

“leverage artificial intelligence to increase productivity and generate added values, uplifting citizens' quality of life, strengthening and broadening the bases of economic and social development, and building a prosperous future of Cambodia's digital technology”.

The UNESCO-led Readiness Assessment Methodology (RAM), launched in Cambodia through a high‑profile national workshop that drew some 450 participants, paints a mixed but actionable picture: strong regional engagement and growing education and research activity sit alongside clear gaps in legal frameworks, cybersecurity maturity and data governance that will limit safe public‑sector AI unless addressed quickly.

Highlights include draft Personal Data Protection and Cybersecurity laws and new master's courses integrating ethics, while troubling metrics - R&D at just 0.09% of GDP, a Global Cybersecurity Index ranking near 132nd, and no routine notice to citizens when public services use AI - signal concrete vulnerabilities; read the UNESCO RAM findings coverage on Cambodia Investment Review at UNESCO RAM findings coverage on Cambodia Investment Review.

CADT and UNESCO's full Readiness Assessment Report breaks the analysis into five pillars (legal, society, science & education, economy, and technology & infrastructure) and offers targeted recommendations - from procurement guidance and open‑data improvements to rural connectivity and talent pipelines - that turn headlines into an implementation checklist; download the CADT Readiness Assessment Report at CADT Readiness Assessment Report download.

The takeaway for Cambodian agencies in 2025 is practical: leverage the momentum from workshops and multi‑stakeholder validation to turn draft policies into enforceable rules, invest where scores lag, and pilot ethically reviewed services so the first live systems don't become the biggest teachable moment.

“Cambodia is showing strong commitment to responsible innovation. With the insights from this report, the country now has a clear roadmap to harness AI's potential while ensuring ethical, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.” - Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director‑General for Social and Human Sciences

Cambodia's legal and ethical landscape for government AI remains a work in progress: as LawGratis notes, “As of May 2025, Cambodia does not have a comprehensive national law specifically governing artificial intelligence,” even as the country builds governance through UNESCO's RAM and an MPTC working group to shape policy and Khmer language models (Cambodia lacks a comprehensive national AI law - LawGratis).

A major shift arrived with the draft Law on Personal Data Protection (LPDP) published in July 2025, which borrows heavily from the GDPR, would create broad data‑subject rights and even mandate certified data protection officers for controllers and processors - a change that could require ministries to staff compliance teams before scaling AI pilots (Draft Law on Personal Data Protection (LPDP) analysis - Hogan Lovells).

Practically, agencies must plan now for consent, breach notification, cross‑border data flows (currently mostly unrestricted outside the banking sector), and documented algorithmic accountability so the first public‑sector deployments become disciplined pilots, not expensive experiments; without clear rules, the first live system could become the country's largest teachable moment.

“Currently there is no definition of the term ‘personal data' under any regulation or law [in Cambodia].” - Chandavya Ing, Senior Associate, Tilleke & Gibbins

Practical AI use in Cambodian agencies is already converging on identity, inclusion and secure service delivery: the new biometric eID (with QR code and embedded chip) and the CamDigiKey eKYC platform make AI‑driven OCR, face and liveness checks, and QR authentication the natural first step for automating citizen interactions - imagine a commune clerk scanning a resident's eID QR code and confirming identity with an AI face match before approving a social‑assistance payment, reducing paperwork while linking reliably to IDPoor records (see the eID rollout coverage Cambodia's biometric eID with QR codes and the government's CamDigiKey authentication service CamDigiKey eKYC platform).

Payments and inclusion workflows are already following suit: the Bakong case study shows how digital ID plus automated verification can be embedded into retail payments and G2P transfers to boost financial access (Bakong and digital payments).

Beyond ID, practical pilots include AI for automated document extraction, fraud detection in public finance, and supervised chatbots/voice systems for routine citizen queries - each use case calls for clear procurement rules, privacy checks and ethical review so pilots scale into trusted services rather than risky experiments; a single vivid sign of success will be when a paper file is replaced by a secure QR scan and an auditable AI decision trace at the point of service.

“With Bakong, we have been able to reduce development and maintenance costs, increase availability and resiliency, and mitigate the single points of failure, thus increasing overall security.”

Building Cambodia's AI muscle is already a practical, multi‑front effort: government-led training and public consultations have turned high‑level strategy into hands‑on learning, from the two‑day MPTC deep‑dive workshop on 7–8 April 2025 that unpacked a year's worth of drafting and technical reviews to planned national and sectoral consultations in June and July (see the MPTC press release on the deep‑dive workshop for details Press release: MPTC deep‑dive workshop on the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy); regional capacity building complements this, with an inter‑regional civil‑service workshop in Phnom Penh (Dec 5–6, 2024) that brought over 60 officials and international experts together to translate AI concepts into public‑sector pilots and curriculum ideas (Astana Civil Service Hub coverage of the Phnom Penh inter‑regional civil‑service AI workshop).

Practical outputs to watch for include modular training for clerks and IT teams, sandboxed pilot checklists, and short episode‑style briefings and dialogues that make ethical and procurement rules usable at the ministry level - so that the next time an agency pilots an automated service, staff aren't learning on a live citizen transaction but in a guided, auditable rehearsal.

“AI is evolving into a transformative technology capable of offering preemptive and personalized services based on situational judgment and reasoning.” - Hansung Jun, Director of the Public Data Policy Division, Ministry of the Interior and Safety (Republic of Korea)

A solid technical backbone and clear data strategy are the linchpins for safe, scalable AI in Cambodia's public sector: the Cambodia Digital Government Policy 2022–2035 explicitly calls for a national backbone, a main data centre and a disaster‑recovery centre using cloud technologies, and secure platforms to host integrated e‑services - building blocks that must pair with pragmatic governance if pilots are to move beyond proofs of concept (Cambodia Digital Government Policy 2022–2035 national policy document).

Recent UNESCO‑led analysis and the RAM findings stress complementary priorities: expand open, high‑quality datasets (CamDX, DataEF), close rural connectivity gaps where internet penetration lags, and harden defences as Cambodia's Global Cybersecurity Index ranking (~132nd) highlights vulnerability to attacks that could undermine citizen trust (UNESCO report on Cambodia AI ambitions, strategy, and cybersecurity gaps).

Practical steps for agencies in 2025 include adopting secure‑by‑design architectures, naming data stewards and incident‑response partners, and publishing clear notices when AI touches public services so that an auditable data trail - not opacity - becomes the norm; one vivid benchmark will be when a national backbone and data centre let ministries exchange an auditable AI decision in seconds rather than days.

“Cambodia is showing strong commitment to responsible innovation. With the insights from this report, the country now has a clear roadmap to harness AI's potential while ensuring ethical, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.” - Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director‑General for Social and Human Sciences

Agencies ready to move from policy talk to production should treat 2025 as the year to pilot fast, safe, and auditable AI: start by studying the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (Version 5) to align pilots with its six strategic priorities and 41 measures (Cambodia Draft National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (Version 5) - full strategy text), then participate in the MPTC public consultation process - using the QR code in the MPTC announcement to submit structured feedback before the 20 June 2025 deadline - and plan to bring refined proposals to the national workshop in early July 2025 as the working group consolidates inputs (MPTC public consultation announcement with QR code and submission details); practical first steps at the ministry level include naming data stewards and incident‑response partners, standing up a small regulatory sandbox with an ethical‑AI checklist to rehearse live workflows (for example a Khmer‑language eKYC pilot), documenting algorithmic decision paths for audit, and sequencing training for clerks and IT teams so pilots are run by rehearsed staff rather than learning-on-live transactions - one vivid, useful benchmark: scan the consultation QR code, submit a pilot plan, and have a sandboxed, auditable demo ready for the July workshop so policy, technical controls and citizen notice are tested together.

“leverage artificial intelligence to increase productivity and generate added values, uplifting citizens' quality of life, strengthening and broadening the bases of economic and social development, and building a prosperous future of Cambodia's digital technology”.

Cambodia's AI journey in 2025 looks like a pragmatic sprint: public consultations on the draft National AI Strategy have moved the country from high‑level aspiration toward concrete rules and pilots, while UNESCO's RAM and regional frameworks remind ministries to pair ambition with strong data protection, cybersecurity and workforce plans (see the June 2025 public consultation coverage in the NBR brief NBR: Charting ASEAN's Path to AI Governance and detailed findings in the Cambodia Investment Review summary Cambodia Investment Review: UNESCO RAM findings).

Practical next moves for ministries are clear: finalise the draft strategy, operationalize data protection and cybersecurity rules, run sandboxed pilots with documented audit trails, and scale human capacity so that routine services evolve into fast, auditable digital experiences (a commune clerk scanning an eID QR code and receiving a traceable AI decision in seconds is the kind of tangible payoff policymakers should target).

Training that focuses on usable skills - such as Nucamp's 15‑week AI Essentials for Work - can help civil servants run, review and govern these pilots responsibly (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work - Registration), turning policy pages into dependable public services without sacrificing trust or inclusion.

“Cambodia is showing strong commitment to responsible innovation. With the insights from this report, the country now has a clear roadmap to harness AI's potential while ensuring ethical, inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.” - Lidia Brito, UNESCO Assistant Director‑General for Social and Human Sciences