Informed Solutions’ Chief Innovation Officer David Lawton reflects on the current state of AI in the Public Sector and shares his thoughts on the path ahead, outlining how Public Sector leaders can work with industry experts to unlock opportunities for transforming the quality of services for citizens.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers massive potential for a public sector, which is caught in the middle of limited investment and a plethora of new economic, 社会, 以及环境挑战.
We find ourselves at a critical inflection point between ambition and execution for AI in the public sector, and through delivery of award-winning projects with clients, engagement with industry forums 以及我们的合作伙伴hips with academia, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on both the challenges and transformative possibilities AI presents.
当前的挑战:野心vs. 执行
的 obvious potential for AI in the public sector has led to a surge in pilot and Proof of Concept projects. 然而, the number of these that have successfully transitioned from experiments to impactful, 全国范围的部署仍然有限. 的 数字的领导人 AI Attitudes survey from March 2024 underscores this gap, revealing growing concerns about organisational capability to convert pilots to real-world business value, creating a perception of low return for investment from AI initiatives.
Earlier this year I was invited onto a panel discussion at the 数字的领导人 Public Sector Innovation conference, alongside experts from the Department for Works and Pensions, 国家审计署和唐宁街10号. 在讨论过程中, I reflected that we’re currently in the foothills of AI adoption in the public sector and there are many parallels with the first wave of digital transformation from a decade ago. 在早期阶段, 人们专注于将基于纸张的流程放到网上, rather than re-imagining how services and their operating models could be transformed and made ‘digital-native’.
记住这段经历, it’s easy to draw parallels with a lot of the AI work currently taking place within public sector estates: individual pockets of AI are being deployed as a small part of end-to-end services (e.g. 为客户转接电话的聊天机器人, Natural Language Processing to search unstructured data, 通用生产力工具，如Copilot). That’s not to say that there aren’t significant benefits to be realised by tackling the low-hanging fruit of repetitive manual work, but these advancements only scratch the surface of what is possible.
的 real question that emerged during our panel discussion was whether we are truly setting an ambitious enough vision for transforming public services with AI.
未来风险:导航“垃圾人工智能”
展望未来, the team at Informed is concerned that markets face a period of ‘rubbish AI’: siloed solutions, quickly deployed to take advantage of open-source data science and cloud-based LLM technologies without a deep understanding of models’ underlying foundations, 限制, 以及训练他们的数据.
This not only risks poor service performance but also presents the very real potential for issues relating to privacy, 道德, and bias that could undermine public trust and create barriers to sustainable transformation.
并行, the development of frontier AI technologies will continue their exponential progress, developing and showcasing remarkable technical achievements (for example OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video model). Such developments clearly provide profile and commercial benefits for the organisations that develop them, but they also help to prepare society as a whole for a future world in which these capabilities have a revolutionary impact.
As frontier AI development continues towards the point of Artificial General Intelligence, it will fall on society at large to discuss and decide how and where it’s safe and appropriate to deploy these capabilities. 的 recent EU AI Act is a great example of developing regulation in this area: clearly setting out situations in which AI systems currently represent unacceptable levels of risk and prohibiting them.
实现机会:知情解决方案的方法
对于所有前沿的创新, 提供真实的, on-the-ground change requires the safe and 道德 integration of new capabilities into real-world products and services, which in turn requires the transformation of established organisational and service delivery operating models.
在通知, 我们专注于保险箱, 安全, 道德, and effective rollout of nationally-scaled AI programmes like a first-of-kind AI-based decision support platform which is helping NatureScot manage the protection and sustainable development of 环境ly sensitive areas across Scotland. We’re thrilled that this work has just been awarded a prestigious 苏格兰政府数字规划创新奖 based on proven and quantified real-world benefits in efficiency and customer satisfaction. Our teams’ AI and data science capability has also been recognised with a 全球创新奖 from the World Innovation Technology Services Alliance for our work in partnership with the NHS to better understand and learn from patient safety reports across a wide range of care settings.
What’s made these projects so successful has been our approach of embedding data science as an enabler for innovation within multi-disciplinary teams with complementary expertise in user research, 服务设计, 安全, 工程, 质量保证.
Just because these new technologies offer a novel approach to delivering services doesn’t negate the value of established disciplines like User Centred Design. Our Communities of Practice are embracing the disruptive and transformative opportunities offered by AI, tackling questions such as: “What does 服务设计 look like in a world of pro-active agents and conversational interaction?”, and “What makes for good content design when content is dynamically generated based on a user’s goal?”
规划前进道路
Embracing AI in public services is not just about adopting new technologies; it’s about fundamentally transforming how services are delivered to better meet the needs of citizens. This transformation requires a deep understanding of user needs, 对公平的承诺, 安全, 治理, 以及创新的战略方针.
By prioritising 道德 innovation and user-centric design, 我们的目标是释放人工智能的全部潜力, ensuring that public services are not only 更高效的 and responsive but also more aligned with the values and needs of the communities they serve.
引导人工智能在公共部门的未来, we remain focussed on delivering solutions that are not just technologically advanced but also socially acceptable and responsible, 并与公共服务的更广泛目标保持一致. 通过继续教育, 建立信任的, 和领导能力, we can harness the transformative power of AI to create a brighter, 更高效的, 以及公共服务更具包容性的未来.
