Digital Public Infrastructure
Neutral, pro bono architecture advice for national DPI programmes: digital identity, payments, data exchange and verifiable credentials. With CDPI's DPI-as-a-Packaged-Solution, deployment takes months instead of years.
Digital Public Infrastructure · AI · Public sector
Building the public rails for the AI era.
I'm Daniel Abadie, Head of Technology & Partnerships at the Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure. I help governments design, build and scale the identity, payments and data rails that public services run on, and the AI that now runs on top of them.
- 20
- Most influential people in digital government, Apolitical 2019
- 60+
- Country DPI engagements shared through CDPI
- 1,000
- Government websites merged into argentina.gob.ar
- 3M+
- People using Mi Argentina on their phones by 2019
What I work on
Two decades on one question: how can the state deliver services people actually want to use?
AI for the public sector
Lead author of the DPI-AI Framework. Its core claim is that government AI works best as interoperable blocks on top of strong DPI rails, not as a vertical silo tied to one vendor.
Digital government delivery
Running digital teams like a civic-tech startup inside government: user needs first, in-house teams, open source, and shipping. The principle I keep coming back to: doing beats everything.
The journey
From running a city's call centre to shaping how countries adopt DPI and AI.
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2024 — now
Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure CDPI · IIIT Bangalore
Head of Technology & Partnerships
I lead technical strategy and partnerships that help countries design, implement and scale DPI. That covers neutral architecture advice, DPI-as-a-Packaged-Solution (DaaS), and bringing together governments, open-source communities, private innovators and funders. I joined as Senior Technical Advisor for Latin America and the Caribbean in early 2024.
- DPI-AI Framework
- G20 DPI Roadmap Playbook
- DaaS
- Verifiable credentials
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2023 — 2024
Banco Macro
Digital Transformation Advisor to the CEO
Designed the bank's GovTech division and a citizen app, and built a blockchain wallet for governments to pay social benefits. Also designed the Knowledge Economy division.
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2020 — 2023
Public Digital London · global
Latin America & Caribbean lead
Engagement lead for every Spanish-speaking project. Clients included the IDB, CAF, UNDP and the governments of Belize, Panama, Jamaica, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Buenos Aires City, the State of California and British Columbia, as well as Bloomberg Philanthropies. I wrote the IDB Data Strategy Playbook and built an executive programme in digital transformation for IE University.
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2015 — 2019
Government of Argentina Presidency of the Nation
Undersecretary of Digital Government
Argentina's first Chief Digital Officer. I advised the President on the digital economy and led the 2018 G20 discussion on government transformation. The team ran like a civic-tech startup at the heart of government, and shipped:
- Mi Argentina: the citizen platform and digital wallet, used by 3M+ people, holding legally valid ID, the country's first digital driving licence, vehicle papers and vaccination records.
- argentina.gob.ar: 1,000+ websites merged into one domain; 600 editors, 50,000 pages, 127M users in four years.
- Chat Crecer: a virtual assistant for pregnancy and early childhood that increased prenatal check-ups. It won the 2019 Webby Award for Health.
- National Digital Inclusion Plan: 250 trainers taught 400,000+ people and 16,000 small businesses and cooperatives in 160 cities to use the internet.
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2011 · 2015
Mauricio Macri campaigns PRO
Head of Technology, 2015 presidential campaign · Digital team, 2011 Buenos Aires mayoral campaign
In 2015 I ran the national campaign's technology infrastructure and digital product development, reporting to the Director of Digital Communication. In 2011 I worked on digital strategy and applications for the re-election campaign in Buenos Aires.
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2007 — 2015
Government of the City of Buenos Aires
Head of digital · Electronic Government Director · Head of Web · CTO Citizen Services
I led a 40-person in-house team of developers, UX designers, civic hackers and geographers, working with Lean Startup methods and open source.
- 147: merged 28 phone lines into a single citizen contact centre, the city's 311, backed by an Open311-based service request system.
- buenosaires.gob.ar: consolidated 400+ websites into one; 22M visits a year by 2011.
- BA Cómo Llego: the city's journey planner app, named App of the Year in 2014.
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2000 — 2007
Private sector
General Manager, PackagingBrokers.com · CIO, Mailparking.com · IT Manager, LaCasilla.com.ar
Early internet businesses in Buenos Aires and Curitiba. This is where I learned to build products people pay for.
Selected work
Frameworks, playbooks and public services I've led or co-created.
Talks, videos & podcasts
Keynotes, webinars and interviews in English and Spanish.
Building Argentina's government-as-a-platform
How a small team built Mi Argentina and argentina.gob.ar with limited resources: focusing on user needs, personalisation, and keeping a team delivering.
Minimum viable government
Applying Lean Startup thinking to the state: ship the smallest useful public service, learn from citizens, and iterate.
DPI–AI Framework: integrating AI into DPI
Identity, payments and verifiable credentials in Latin America
The present and future of digital transformation in Argentina
The story of Mi Argentina
Writing & press
Papers, articles, case studies, book chapters and coverage.
- 2026DPI-AI Framework: Building AI-Ready Nations through Digital Public InfrastructureCDPI · Paper
- 2026New framework argues government AI depends on strong DPIBiometric Update
- 2025The DPI Roadmap Playbook (G20)DIAL · CDPI · BTCA · AfricaNenda
- 2025Building digital trust in Latin AmericaSovra · Podcast
- 2024Infrastructure for the Digital Age: building a safer, more resilient digital ecosystemNew America · Contributor
- 2024CDPI and Red GEALC sign letter of intent to boost DPI in Latin America and the CaribbeanBiometric Update
- —A humanity-scale digital public infrastructure?GovInsider
- —CDPI to launch DPI-as-a-Packaged-SolutionGovInsider
- 2022Government Butlers: past, present and future of Argentina's digital stateOpinion columnSeúl · ES Medium · EN
- 2022Chapter 7: Daniel Abadie, in Digital Government ExcellenceWiley · Book
- 2020Argentina: building a civic tech startup within governmentCase study · Harvard Kennedy School, State of Digital Transformation 2019
- 2019From city to nation: digital government in Argentina, 2015–2018Case study · Bennett Institute, University of Cambridge
- 2019Digital innovation in Latin America: Argentina's digital driver's licenseCase study · Beeck Center, Georgetown University
- 2019Crecer con Salud: virtual assistant for pregnancy and early childhoodCase study · OECD Observatory of Public Sector Innovation
- 2019Chat Crecer: health policy that works outside the health systemChatbots Life
- —How Argentina launched a new driving licence in just 65 daysGovInsider
- 2019The 20 most influential people in digital governmentApolitical
- 2019Webby Award winner: Crecer con Salud virtual assistantThe Webby Awards
- 2018Government as a platform: Mi Argentina as a personal hub for citizen information and servicesMediumES
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Exploring DPI or AI for your country? Let's talk.
LinkedIn is the best way to reach me. I work with governments, multilaterals, funders and open-source communities.