Automation and use of AI (artificial intelligence) could save billions of dollars across all levels of American government, according to a new study.
The research, AI-augmented Government, produced by a team out of the US arm of consultants Deloitte, predicts at the Federal level alone automation could free up as many as 1.2 billion hours of work, saving up to $41.1 billion (£32 billion) per year.
The authors also claim that such a potential 30% savings in government worker time could be expected to happen within five to seven years of implementing an AI solution.
And as a result of its findings, the report concludes AI will fundamentally change how every level of government works – “and will do so much sooner than most people believe”.
The impact of AI is also likely to happen on several front and involve multiple technologies, it adds – with a clutch of techniques, from rules-based systems, machine translation, computer vision, machine learning, robotics and natural language processing namechecked.
William Eggers, co-author of the report and executive director of the Deloitte Center for Government Insights, told a US news site that automation technologies are now improving in performance “at an exponential rate”.
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“Technologies are getting better very, very quickly – and at the same time, they’re falling in cost in terms of deployment.
“When you see that sort of thing occurring, you start seeing adoption increasing.”
The study includes a large set of case studies, including HMRC’s use of automation to speed up the processing of repetitive tasks tat is claimed to have cut case handling time by 40% and processing cost by 80.
Another is the use of handwriting recognition used by the US Postal Service which means as many as 18,000 pieces of mail per hour can be handled at some branches now.
THINK Digital Partners’ upcoming THINK AI for Public Sector 2017, scheduled for three weeks tomorrow (June 23) will feature in-depth analysis of the potential for advanced techniques such as the study describes.
To make sure you get full exposure to current sector thinking about AI and robotics, please ensure your free place by registering here… there’s still time, but places are limited, so don’t leave it too late!
