Germany has a goal: digital sovereignty. But reality in government offices often looks different. Dependencies on individual US vendors ("vendor lock-in") paralyze administration. The ZenDiS strategy and calls for "Sovereign Workplace" point the way: the future of government is open.
The public sector faces a crisis in 2025. Aging personnel, exploding workload (housing subsidies, refugee reception, bureaucratic reduction) and citizens who expect digital services like Amazon.
Calls for AI as a savior are loud. But at the same time, the state cannot make itself exploitable. It cannot place its "digital infrastructure" in the hands of a single corporation whose terms of service change monthly and whose headquarters are in Redmond.
The Strategic Goal: ZenDiS and openDesk
The Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS) is advancing the vision of the "Sovereign Workplace" (openDesk) on behalf of the federal government. The goal: A working environment for government agencies based on open-source components (Phoenix, Nextcloud, Open-Xchange, Matrix) instead of Microsoft 365.
Why?
1. Control: The state must know what the code does (auditability).
2. Independence: No unilateral price increases or license changes.
3. Data Protection: Citizens' data doesn't belong on Azure servers.
TheroAI is the logical continuation of this strategy for the age of AI.
TheroAI: The "Missing Link" for the Open Source Workplace
The critics' argument used to be: "Open source is nice, but Microsoft has Copilot. We need this AI power."
Syntriq delivers exactly this power with TheroAI – but based on open standards. We see ourselves as the bridge between the open-source world (Llama, Mistral, Qdrant) and user-friendly application in government.
1. Model Independence (Sovereignty by Design)
We don't tie ourselves to a model. Is Llama 3 state-of-the-art today? Tomorrow it might be a model from France (Mistral) or a German model (Aleph Alpha).
TheroAI allows agencies to swap models like light bulbs. If a model no longer meets security requirements, we swap it out. Try that with Copilot in Office 365.
2. Integration with Specialized Procedures
Government doesn't consist only of Word documents. It consists of specialized procedures (Prosoz, AKDB, eAkte).
US tools often fail at these proprietary German interfaces. TheroAI specializes in tapping exactly these data silos and making them searchable.
3. Air-Gapped Capability
For areas with the highest security requirements (police, justice, defense, KRITIS), software must function without internet connection.
TheroAI is fully offline-capable. Once installed, the container network runs autonomously. Updates can be deployed in a controlled manner via data carriers. This is the gold standard of IT security.
Use Cases: AI in Service of Citizens
Where does TheroAI specifically help resolve administrative backlogs?
The "Council Agent" for Municipalities:
Before each city council meeting, councilors receive hundreds of pages of resolution templates. TheroAI summarizes these complex documents, extracts financial implications, and compares them with previous resolutions. This strengthens democratic decision-making.
Citizen Requests & Application Review:
Citizens write emails in prose ("I want housing assistance, what do I need?"). TheroAI analyzes the text, checks for jurisdiction, extracts missing information, and drafts a legally sound response with references to correct forms.
Procurement Procedures:
Reviewing bid submissions is tedious and error-prone. TheroAI automatically compares specifications and flags deviations from mandatory criteria.
Conclusion: Sovereignty Is Not a Luxury, But a Duty
The state has a role model function. When government uses AI, it must be transparent, fair, and controllable. "Black box" algorithms are incompatible with the rule of law.
With TheroAI, we offer public administration a technology that is powerful enough to ease the workload and open enough to meet the demands of digital sovereignty.
We don't build walls around your data. We build the foundation for tomorrow's government.
For Procurement Offices and IT Planners
Planning a tender in the field of "AI Services," "Knowledge Management," or "Chatbot"?
We support you in formulating product-neutral performance descriptions that ensure topics like sovereignty, open source, and data protection are weighted as criteria.
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