Sri Lanka Parliament’s the Committee on Public Finance (COPF) has commenced pilot testing of an artificial intelligence (AI) solution to digitise and modernise long-standing system of handwritten Hansard records and committee meeting minutes.
SJB MP and COPF Chair Dr Harsha de Silva announced the initiative on social media, highlighting that the AI integration — developed by Finetech in collaboration with Google — aims to transform the existing manual transcription process into a fast, efficient, and fully digitised system.
According to Dr de Silva, the current system relies on overburdened transcribers who often face significant delays in producing verbatim records and meeting summaries for more than ten parliamentary committees. The introduction of AI is expected to enable instant generation of minutes, accurate transcriptions, and identification of key action points.
“This is a game-changer in parliamentary efficiency,” Dr de Silva posted, describing the initiative as a step forward in leveraging technology for institutional reform. He commended the teams involved and promoted the pilot as part of a broader effort to modernise parliamentary operations under the #TechForChange and #ModernizeSL movements.