A recent report from Tony Blair’s think-tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, sparked interesting conversations in the news cycle earlier this month, around AI and digital transformation in the public sector.
In the report, Blair claims that “government departments could cut workforce time by up to 40% using artificial intelligence (AI) and that the UK public sector could save 20% of workforce time.”
While the report obviously focuses on the potential impact of AI, it also brings much needed attention more broadly to the issue of public sector digital transformation. It is a timely reminder given that the government launched its own transformation initiative over two years ago now: the 2022-2025 roadmap for digital and data transformation. The roadmap detailed a strategy designed to revolutionise government services and optimise taxpayer expenditure by harnessing technology.
The roadmap introduced bold objectives aimed at “transforming digital public services, delivering world-class digital technology and systems, and attracting and retaining the best in digital talent” with a refreshingly candid assessment of the challenges ahead.
“Our services are often slow, difficult to use, and expensive to deliver,” claimed the roadmap. “Departments operate many competing digital identity solutions as well as duplicative identity verification transformation programs. Data quality is inconsistent and frequently poor, while effective data sharing between departments is limited.”
It also highlighted obstacles such as “costly and outdated technology” and the government’s inability to “leverage our scale in technology procurement.” The document highlights the struggle to “attract and retain top digital talent” and points out that current working methods “do not enable or incentivize agile delivery methodologies.”
Government Transformation: A Daunting Task
Even today, this honest assessment remains largely true. As we look back two years, it’s clear that an immediate turnaround was never expected, yet significant progress has been reported by those in charge.
One notable advancement is One Login, a system allowing users to access government services online with a single username and password, eliminating the need for repeated identity verification. According to the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), over 4.4 million people have utilised this service.
Additionally, 21 of the top 75 government services, from claiming maternity allowance to obtaining an export health certificate, are now ranked as ‘great,’ meaning they are quick and easy to use.
Further progress includes the publication of the Generative AI Framework and the launch of a new Secure by Design approach to embed cybersecurity into digital services.
Persistent Challenges with Legacy Systems
Despite these advances, significant challenges remain. The continued reliance on legacy systems not only hampers functionality but also acts as a component stunting progress and draining resources.
Data management remains a critical issue. The public sector is plagued by data fragmentation, with numerous systems and databases spread across multiple agencies and departments. This complexity slows the march toward digital transformation to a crawl.
Attracting Talent Remains
Another challenge remains and while work is underway, attracting talent into the public sector with the technical skills required can be difficult – owing to a number of factors, ranging from lower pay compared to the private sector to less flexibility or benefits, for example.
The government must work harder to appeal to IT and engineering experts to close the skills gap, particularly as the UK strives to become an ‘AI superpower.’ We will only get there, together and the public sector cannot be left behind.
The roll-out of skills boot camps is one approach that has the potential to deliver results – a government-led opportunity to train in a new industry or for people to progress in their current career.
While more needs to be done to make up the shortfall. There are reasons to be optimistic about the future, especially with the new and innovative technologies we have at our fingertips.
Where Are We now?
I think there is still quite a way to go until Blair’s statement on using AI to cut down workforce time in the public sector can become even close a reality. But it’s also an exciting time filled with promise, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the next 12 months evolve for the continued digital transformation of the public sector.
About the Author
Sascha Giese is Tech Evangelist at SolarWinds. SolarWinds began with two IT professionals trying to solve complex problems in the simplest way. Today, we still take pride in developing deep, real-world understanding of the challenges our customers face. That’s how we deliver intuitive, time-saving solutions and speed-to-value like nobody else.
