{"name":"Applied AI in Bhutan — the record","description":"Every announced initiative, deployment, published result and regulation of applied AI on the record for Bhutan, tagged by kind, industry, region and role, sourced and dated. A slice of the State of Applied AI record, maintained continuously by the Industrial Research Unit of the Straits Institute for Applied AI.","source":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/bhutan","partOf":"https://www.straitsai.institute/state-of-applied-ai/evidence.json","attribution":"Industrial Research Unit, Straits Institute for Applied AI","updated":"2026-09-30","facet":{"kind":"country","name":"Bhutan","slug":"bhutan","iso2":"BT","region":"Asia-Pacific"},"counts":{"entries":3,"deployments":1,"evidenceImpact":0,"evidenceAdoption":1,"regulation":1,"industries":2,"countries":1,"linked":3},"entries":[{"kind":"deployment","industry":"Healthcare & Life Sciences","region":"Bhutan","role":"Clinician","org":"Ministry of Health of Bhutan","text":"Bhutan's Ministry of Health will place Cardiolife's AI ECG interpretation software in 25 health facilities - national, regional, district - after Health Minister Lyonpo Tandin Wangchuk backed the plan. Software and kit arrive free; clinicians read ECGs instantly. Cardiolife rates its CE-marked MDR Class IIb product at up to 100% accuracy on key cardiac conditions, a vendor figure with no independent evaluation published. Validation comes through a joint operational research study of the AI-assisted cardiac diagnostics.","date":"2026-06-08","source":"https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260608871442/en/Cardiolife-Partners-with-Bhutan-Ministry-of-Health-to-Strengthen-Nationwide-Cardiac-Care"},{"kind":"evidence-adoption","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Bhutan","org":"Teachers of Bhutan Volunteers / Ministry of Education and Skills Development","text":"The DigiGyel Project began in Thimphu, a three-year push to carry AI literacy into Bhutan's high schools, with more than 150 remote schools first in line. More than 50,000 students and 300 teachers are to be taught AI skills, and more than 800 laptops go out nationwide, 260 reaching the education ministry at the start. The Switzerland-based NGO Dariu Foundation pays for the artificial intelligence training, run by Teachers of Bhutan Volunteers.","date":"2026-04-01","source":"https://www.bbs.bt/240725/"},{"kind":"regulation","industry":"Government & Public Sector","region":"Bhutan","org":"GovTech Agency, Royal Government of Bhutan","text":"Gross National Happiness, not GDP growth, anchors Bhutan's AI national strategy. GovTech Agency, Royal Government of Bhutan, built NAIS 2025 on eight priority areas spanning farming, healthcare, schooling, tourism and government services, backed by seven pillars: infrastructure, governance, skills and funding. This AI policy stays non-binding.","date":"2025-10-02","source":"https://aipolicytracker.org/policies/bhutan-bhutan-national-ai-strategy-2025"}]}