Challenges of Transition to Paperless Management: Readiness of Incorporating AI in Decision-making Processes

National governments are eager to design innovative ways of altering traditional service delivery. Nevertheless, the transition from legacy systems to digital is challenging. A crucial aspect of e-Governance is paperless management which facilitates seamless data exchange and digitalised workflows. Remote access to documents and files has become an absolute necessity based on the current Covid pandemic, especially in relation to internal workflows. The whole lifecycle of the records should be secure, traceable, and immutably archived for future access. The purpose of this research was to investigate the challenges of implementing Electronic Documents and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) in Georgian public entities, with a focus on user acceptance. In addition, the goal was to determine the current EDRMS maturity level and possibility of implementing virtual assistants in decision-making processes. Estonia, as a tech-savvy country and highflyer in e-Governance, was taken as a successful model. Comparison was made between Georgia and Estonia based on EDRMS maturity model. In combination with thorough literature review, primary data was also collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with government institutions, experts in this field and questionnaires disseminated among users. The result of the study showed that the major hinderances among users were fears of losing jobs, increased accountability and insufficient computer literacy. Lack of automated decision-making processes indicated that the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the EDRMS is not yet possible. In order for Georgia to initiate transition from existing maturity phase, various advancements should be made. An initial implementation plan has been derived from this research.