From months to days: Hellenic Cadastre speeds up land registry transactions with Azure OpenAI

Greece’s Ministry of Digital Governance oversees digitizing public services for citizens and businesses. The Ministry optimizes and digitizes all sorts of processes, everything from shipping to paying fines. For example, it leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to spot traffic violations or analyze satellite data and catch issues like wildfires and floods. “We aim to create a society that no longer wastes time on paperwork, queuing, or being held up by red tape," shares Konstantinos Kyranakis, Deputy Minister of Digital Governance in Greece. “Our vision is to harness the potential of AI to transform the public sector, making it more efficient in serving citizens.”

One manual, time-consuming process that the Ministry decided to streamline was land purchases. Traditionally, a person intending to buy a house had to go to the local registry office with a large stack of documents. A Ministry employee would have to read through 300 pages of paperwork, make notes, and provide an assessment. Another employee would later have to re-read and input everything into an outdated system. “The legal review, certificate verification, and data entry were all manual. Previously, when you bought a house, you might need to wait months or even years to be officially recognized as the owner,” shares Kyranakis.

Aiming to eliminate these delays, the Ministry established Hellenic Cadastre, a unified and constantly updated property records system for citizens and the state. Hellenic Cadastre allows Cadastre employees to retrieve transactions, assess them, sign them digitally, and request assistance. It integrates seamlessly with the ecosystem of lawyers, notaries, and other officials who file new transactions on behalf of citizens.

To streamline the process even further, Hellenic Cadastre introduced AI into the property buying process. "Using Azure OpenAI Service, we've built a system that understands property contracts in natural language. It automatically classifies the contracts into categories such as buying or inheriting property and applies the relevant legal rules," shares Kyranakis. As a result, the system generates a ready-made assessment of each document, enabling the registry director to approve or reject an application.

Additionally, Hellenic Cadastre developed a digital assistant using Azure OpenAI Service to answer citizens' questions. “The chatbot reduces the workload of the local land registry offices, which used to handle many questions in person,” adds Kyranakis. “Every week, we gather more complex questions that require detailed answers, and we update the chatbot’s knowledge base so that everyone across Greece gets consistent and accurate information.”

Upskilling staff with AI

The Ministry introduced these changes carefully and gradually across its offices. "Upskilling staff for AI is the biggest challenge for the public sector," reflects Kyranakis. "There are about 150 people with approving authority in our system, and most of them are not necessarily very comfortable with technology," he explains. Though collaborating with stakeholders helped with buy-in, many in the local offices were still skeptical. However, as employees received training and began using the new system, their engagement grew. "When they saw what the AI system could do and how quick it was, they were very thankful," notes Kyranakis. Soon, the Ministry started receiving daily feedback from public servants on how to make the system even faster and better.

Enhanced transparency to inform resource allocation

Today, 90% of transactions across all local land registry offices are processed online. This gives the Ministry complete transparency. “We can see the current status of every case, something that was impossible with the old paper-based system,” shares Kyranakis. Power BI reports offer leaderboards and real-time performance data on all local offices, enabling the Ministry to monitor performance and allocate resources more efficiently. “We also share this real-time data to other authorities, giving them clarity on the volume of real estate transactions. This helps them plan the national budget,” adds Kyranakis. “For the first time, we have predictive tools to support financial planning. It’s revolutionary.”

The system also tracks the cost per assessment. "Right now, the cost of each contract assessment is 0.11 euros, down from 15 euros before adopting Azure OpenAI," he notes. “This level of transparency enables us to justify this innovation to taxpayers, who now know they're paying much less than they did before.”

But the most important benefit is speed. “Previously, contract assessments could take up to three hours. Now, it takes less than 10 minutes. The entire transaction can be validated in days rather than months. With Azure OpenAI, we're saving a massive amount of time," highlights Kyranakis.

This rapid validation allows property owners, banks, and state-owned property managers to proceed without lengthy delays. "With faster transactions, more transactions can be completed within a financial year, so the Greek economy will also grow, and the state will receive more taxes," notes Kyranakis. “This signals to investors that the Greek real-estate market is reliable, with clear rules and fast, secure digital processes for property transactions, which further boosts economic growth.”

Much of the work was made possible with strong support from the local Microsoft team. "Microsoft was always available to support us. We still have weekly meetings to discuss opportunities or possible issues,” shares Kyranakis. “We feel like we have a real partner in Microsoft, not a faceless provider somewhere halfway across the world."

Digitizing a billion paper documents

Inspired by the newfound efficiency, Hellenic Cadastre has embarked on an ambitious project to digitize its vast archive. “By 2025, we aim to have a fully digitized archive of 1 billion pages and a digital map of Greece where every piece of land corresponds to a registry code. All of this data—about 8 petabytes—will be hosted and accessed via Azure technologies, with Microsoft’s support.” This will completely eliminate the need for physical visits to complete transactions.

Transforming public service with AI

Taking in its success, the Ministry is confident in its strategy. “With AI, we can completely transform the public sector and empower citizens with the right services at the right time. Public services will become much faster and cheaper, ultimately lowering taxes and improving citizen journeys," Kyranakis concludes.