Welsh language technology and artificial intelligence (AI): updates

Over the past few years, we’ve been working hard to improve technology to help more people to use Welsh in everyday life. 

Here are our current priorities:

• improving technology to increase the daily use of Cymraeg
• making sure everyone can access Welsh language technology
• improving Welsh language artificial intelligence (AI) and speech and language technologies (by sharing data and other means)

This Written Statement explains what steps we’re taking to achieve this.

We’ll continue to publish the latest updates on this page.

A summary of our work from the previous year is available on Welsh language technology and artificial intelligence (AI): summary.

Priorities for the Welsh language

“And we need to respond to opportunities – and challenges – in terms of technology. We're already leading the world in this area. In Wales, bilingual meetings are very common. And Wales is the first place in the world where bilingual transcription is possible in Microsoft Teams. And I'm writing to big tech companies to discuss the next steps, including advances in artificial intelligence.”

The Cabinet Minister for Education and the Welsh Language outlined her priorities for the Welsh language at Plenary on 7 July 2026, including Welsh technology and AI as part of building foundations that sustain the language.

New category for Helo Blod list of tools and resources: Parents and Carers

We want to make it easier for parents and carers of children and young people to use more Welsh. 

We’ve expanded our Helo Blod list of tools and resources to include a dedicated section for parents and carers to help children and young people use more Welsh in school and beyond the classroom.

Technology Grants

For 2026 to 2027, Welsh language technology grants have been awarded to: 

• Bangor University to deliver the Iriaith project, developing and improving Welsh-language data, AI models and technology tools. 
• Data Orchard to deliver the Mapio Cymru project, developing and enriching open Welsh geographic data. 
• The National Library of Wales to deliver the Wici Cymru a’i Phobl project, expanding Welsh content and information online through the use of open data and Wiki platforms. 
• Cardiff University to deliver the Development, Use and Integration of NLP Cymru CyTag Services project, developing and deploying a new Welsh language technology infrastructure. 

The projects will report back on the progress and results of their work at the end of March 2027.

The Welsh technology resources funded by the Welsh Government are available free of charge on Helo Blod. 

Examples of how people are using these open resources

Trawsgrifiwr

“At the Press Office, we keep a record of every interview a Minister gives to the media. We then draft and share a transcript with our team to ensure that everyone is up to date with what has been said publicly.

As a bilingual team, Trawsgrifiwr has enabled all members of the press office to capture and transcribe Welsh-language interviews and make them available to the team through the translation function-after human verification. Through the Cymraeg 2050 team, we welcomed the chance to work with the developers as well to refine a system that better suited our needs as a team and will continue to use the programme going ahead.” 

Mapio Cymru

Senedd Cymru is now using work from the Mapio Cymru project (funded by the Welsh Government) as the basis for its constituency map across Wales. 

The interactive map is an example of how the Welsh Government's investment in open resources can create wider value, enabling other organisations to develop useful services that support citizens across Wales.