artificial intelligence is becoming the catalyst for development, innovation, and Greece’s transition to a new digitalera.
The future of the Greek economy lies in the deeper utilization of new technologies, with the Minister of National Economy and Finance and President of the Eurogroup, Kyriakos Pierrakakis highlighting the critical role of Artificial Intelligence in transforming the state, businesses and the labor market, emphasizing that the country must accelerate these changes to strengthen competitiveness, investments and its position in the new global economic environment.
Regarding the need for a productivity revolution both in Greece and in Europe, was highlighted by Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, in a speech at the workshop organized by the Committee on Accounting Standardization and Auditing (ELTE) on the topic: “The Next Gen Audit: Innovation, Quality, and AI”.
Europe’s productivity is lower than that of the United States
As he noted, Europe’s overall productivity is lower than that of the United States. Meanwhile, in Greece, although much has been achieved in the economy in recent years (achievement of political and economic stability, unemployment near a historic low, a growth rate double that of the European average, rapid debt reduction, improved investment, and a doubling of exports), there is still much to be done in terms of innovation and productivity.
Referring to the work of auditing firms, he said that ELTE represents and brings together the guardians of reliability in economies and economic decisions. And their contribution is deemed absolutely essential to keeping the compass on course, to preserving trust in an era of truly rapid digital transformation, but also to foster consensus among all stakeholders on a shared framework for investment and economic policy.
According to the minister, “this trust forms the basis for every tax decision, especially in today’s world. And at the same time, in the era we find ourselves in, both the volume and the complexity of genuine and reliable data are increasing. A complexity that we must be able to understand and decipher.”
As he also pointed out, while the high quality of the audit work the country’s development framework and reputation—among other factors—will depend on this, in order to establish a modern approach to attracting sustainable investments. This is especially true now, when the rapid pace of major changes and new information makes the need for validation and reliability—carried out competently and swiftly—all the more urgent.
Specifically, Mr. Pierrakakis stated the following:
“It is a great pleasure to be here at your conference, which is organized around these forward-looking considerations that the title alone invites us to address.
Above all, however, I am pleased to be among individuals who play a decisive role in economic developments as well as in public policy in the field of economics. And I believe, in response to what you mentioned earlier, that it would not be an exaggeration to say that ELTE represents and brings together the guardians of credibility in economies and economic decision-making. And I believe your contribution is absolutely essential to keeping the compass on course, to preserve trust in an era of truly rapid digital transformation, and to foster consensus among all stakeholders on a common framework for investment and economic policy.
This trust forms the basis for every tax decision, especially in today’s world. And at the same time, in the era we find ourselves in, both the volume and the complexity of genuine and reliable data are increasing. A complexity that we must be able to understand and decipher.
Therefore, we must constantly keep our antennae tuned to vigilance and discernment, and to achieve this, our auditors are of great help through their work. At this juncture, technological innovation—and more specifically, Artificial Intelligence—can, if applied correctly, reinforce our efforts to safeguard the reliability of data and, more broadly, financial institutions. Your initiative, therefore, is absolutely timely because right now—and allow me to make this connection—all over the world, and certainly in Europe, we are discussing how the new LLMs—especially Anthropic’s Mythos—represent a true generational shift in Artificial Intelligence. You mentioned digitization earlier.
Digitization has been a long-standing issue for Greece ever since I was a student. I remember the computer science textbooks, and I remember how we used to talk about computerization back then and how it hadn’t been implemented in our country. In the 1980s, however, with very few systems, we managed to implement it across the Greek government, and after many years of delay, we finally addressed the long-standing issue of the Third Industrial Revolution—not the Fourth.
In other words, we began digitizing paper documents, we began creating systems and untangling bureaucratic red tape, devising laws to simplify procedures; we started by acknowledging that the state in Greece had never been designed —it had emerged from the accumulation of many decisions over decades—and all of this, taken together, gradually pushed us to make a major change, with gov.gr at its core. And the Recovery Fund allowed us to finance our entire vision so that we could make this transition. gov.gr had 2,257 digital services last week.
As a country, we also know roughly how many procedures we need to digitize. There are about 5,500 services, those aimed at businesses and citizens. So, we’re on a very long journey. We have digitized the services that generate the most red tape and cause the greatest inconvenience for citizens.
We have a digital tax system, paperless prescription services, and we are digitizing the land registry. Many systems will now be rolled out over the next few years thanks to the Recovery Fund. The government is implementing an ERP system for the first time on such a large scale. All of this is very important. But the revolution that is already here—and which we are discussing—concerns the Fourth Industrial Revolution, that is, the convergence of the digital, physical, and biological spheres—and these are systems that are, in fact, completely different from those produced in previous decades. Because they are sentient.
Anthropic’s LLM is essentially a system capable of “hacking” any other system. And this raises a great many questions regarding the global governance of Artificial Intelligence. And it raises a great many questions regarding how we should integrate these technologies in each country.
There is an entirely positive aspect to this, and it concerns productivity; it concerns your profession; it concerns what we can achieve, what we can accomplish. I’ll tell you this for every country. When I was Minister of Education, the fundamental question was, “How will we integrate Artificial Intelligence into education?”
And you can do that. First of all, digital tools—step one. Back then, we had thought, for example, about the “Digital Tutoring Center.” We had thought about how we could digitize the school curriculum in general. And then Artificial Intelligence comes along and asks, in the context of education: “How can I help each student excel in the specific area of targeted education they’d like to receive and, in turn, support the teacher’s role?”
Similarly, I would say that the proper application of Artificial Intelligence—in every sector and every profession, and obviously in yours—is not only possible but can be done very well indeed. That is one aspect of the issue. The other aspect of the issue, however, is that technology must have the right governance system. And on a global level, right now, what we’re discussing is exactly this: “how to do both.” Because both Greece and Europe need a productivity revolution. Europe’s overall productivity is lower than that of the United States.
And Greece’s productivity: we have achieved a great deal in the Greek economy in recent years; I’ll reiterate the most obvious point—that we have achieved political and economic stability. We are on track to reach a historic low in unemployment. Our growth rate is double that of the European average. And Greek debt is no longer a problem. It is declining faster than any other debt on the planet. So, all of these are achievements.
But we still have unfinished business. Investment as a percentage of GDP is steadily improving; when we took office, it was 11%, with the European average at 21%, and now the forecast is that we will soon reach 17% to 18%. Exports from Greece have doubled since 2009, when the crisis began, rising from 20% to 42%, while the European average stands at 51%. So we still have some ground to make up there as well. But certainly, when it comes to innovation and productivity, we still have a lot of work to do. And as a country, we have a lot of work to do.
Consequently, I would say that being able to properly integrate Artificial Intelligence into every sector, every country, and every profession is absolutely vital for us. This is a discussion that needs to take place. So there is the dimension of threat and the dimension of opportunity. I would say that’s how it is with everything, that’s how it is in all things. And the good news is that here, as a country, we’ve managed to prove—as you mentioned earlier—that when it comes to digital governance, we’ve managed to accomplish a great deal, very quickly.
So, we have every reason to believe that we can implement this very quickly. Let me mention a broader threat, philosophically speaking. The broader threat is that, generally speaking, we need to move a little faster here than we’re used to, in the following sense: a classic technological shift like those of previous decades. We’ve always had technological changes. My favorite economist was Schumpeter, who introduced the concept of creative destruction. And he said that innovation is the driving force of capitalism. Something comes along, something is created, and something is replaced.
The car replaces the horse-drawn carriage. Jobs related to the car are created, while jobs related to the horse-drawn carriage are lost. And this process is the driving force of the economy.
But what was the issue? These transitions—whether we’re talking about the First Industrial Revolution, the Second, or the Third—took some time; they took a decade, fifteen years—to give an example of a technological change from my generation: Athens used to be full of video clubs. During the last election, when I was a candidate in Athens A, I found a video club in Kolonos and tried to have my picture taken there because it must have been the last one left in Athens. Why am I mentioning this? Because the transition from video clubs to Netflix and streaming platforms took about ten to fifteen years
The difference with Artificial Intelligence is that its adoption and speed are such that we’ll be talking in terms of months, not years. And businesses will have to adapt to this integration and change very quickly, and political systems will have to do the same, year by year. Whether it concerns adapting the social security system, how AI will be introduced into education, or the economy and the catalytic role you have to play, or whether it concerns the justice system and how artificial intelligence can play a role in it.
Many professions will be created, and many will be threatened by this transition and this equation. So, I would say that this is the vocabulary of our times.
At our last meeting at the International Monetary Fund a few weeks ago, we discussed two topics: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and Anthropic’s LLM, which I mentioned to you regarding the role it might play in the economy. And a very experienced colleague of mine observed that the historian of the future will shed light on and document the second issue— Artificial Intelligence as a much bigger issue than the one that dominates the “here” and “now.” Obviously, it’s a big deal, but the changes that Artificial Intelligence will bring to everything are such that we are experiencing a historic transformation that we do not yet fully grasp. I would say that this is the vocabulary not only of the economy—which you asked me about and mentioned earlier—but it must also be the vocabulary of politics. We—as political leaders, ministers, governments, and political parties. Public discourse must focus on the future, not the past. And certainly not on political competition… the same applies to professions such as yours.
And I would add that, generally speaking, auditors are accountable, and they themselves are subject to scrutiny. Therefore, there is no threat to your profession, and this fact makes you irreplaceable in the chain of accountability. A large language model (LLM) will never be asked to explain itself if it makes professional-level spelling errors. You, the auditor, will be the one asked to explain. This is your decisive advantage. You have the moral and legal standing as natural persons. You are accountable and subject to scrutiny.
And, therefore, precisely because you know that you are being scrutinized and held accountable, you can maintain—with the help of technology, with the help of Artificial Intelligence—the authority, responsibility, independence, and power of your decision and your signature. Even in a rapidly changing world. I would say all the more so in a rapidly changing world. I would also like to add that, more broadly speaking, in a Greece of growth—because that is the reality— we are growing at twice the European average, despite international challenges and despite the problems, which are obviously there and still need to be resolved.
The needs and opportunities for auditing projects exist and are growing. We seek out and support the work of auditing firms, emphasizing the need for high quality. After all, the framework for development and the country’s good reputation after all, the country’s development framework and good reputation—among other things—will depend on this high quality, so that the modern approach to attracting sustainable investments can take root. Greece’s investment identity depends to a very significant extent on your work. I would therefore like to congratulate ELTE for this initiative. Today’s discussion goes beyond the future of a profession critical to the economy; it touches on how we combine growth with credibility, innovation with responsibility, and technological progress with trust in institutions.
Especially now, when the rapid pace of major changes and new information makes the need for validation and reliability—with both competence and speed—all the more urgent. The bar is being raised for all of us in every field of activity.
Your own field, of course, could not remain unaffected. It is a responsibility, a challenge, and an opportunity that I am certain Greek auditors will make the most of. And in this way, you will become even more closely connected to the next steps in the development and progress of our country.”
