Automation and generative AI (gen AI) hold significant potential for boosting public sector productivity, creating up to £38 billion a year in annual savings by 2030, according to new research.
The ‘AI and the Public Sector’ report by Public First, commissioned by Google Cloud, surveyed 415 public sector workers in the UK. It indicated that AI could automate up toa third of daily public sector tasks, such as records management and data processing, freeing up valuable time for employees to focus on higher-value work.
Public sector workers themselves consider efficiency and the automation of repetitive tasks to be the strongest arguments in favour of using AI, according to the report.
The report highlights AI’s potential to significantly impact vital public services like policing and healthcare. For example, fully adopting AI for administrative tasks could free up the equivalent of more than 160,000 police officers and could unlock 3.7 million more GP appointments every week. This would ease capacity constraints in these sectors.
The latest figures follows a similar study by Microsoft and Goldsmiths from the University of London, which found that AI could save more than four hours per week on admin tasks per staff member across all public sectors. And a report from the Alan Turing Institute in March suggested AI could help automate around 84 percent of repetitive transactions across 200 government services.
However, a survey by the National Audit Office (NAO) found that while 70 percent of government bodies were piloting and planning AI use cases, the technology is not yet widely used across government.
What do public sector workers think about AI more broadly?
The Google Cloud research highlights that many public admin workers recognise the potential of AI tools but are still early on in the overall process of adoption. Two-thirds of public admin managers agreed that AI will change the way the public sector operates forever — but just 12 percent said that they had already significantly deployed AI tools.
Despite their openness to AI integration, concerns around data security and legal implications remain significant barriers. The report stresses the need for addressing these concerns and equipping the public sector workforce with the necessary skills to effectively utilise AI. Building trust and transparency in AI implementation is crucial for its successful adoption in the UK public sector.
Recommendations
To unlock the full potential of AI in the public sector, the report urges the government, public sector organisations, and tech companies to collaborate and focus on:
- Upskilling the workforce: Only around a third (34 percent) of public administration managers were confident that their workforce had the right skills to take advantage of AI. Equipping public sector employees with the skills and knowledge to effectively use AI tools.
- Addressing data concerns: 55 percent of public administration managers agreed that they would need access to different or better structured datasets to fully take advantage of AI. Establishing robust data security measures and clarifying legal liabilities to build trust and ensure responsible AI use.
- Maintaining transparency: Sixty percent of public administration managers agreed that there were legal or regulatory barriers that would make them cautious about using AI tools more extensively. Openly communicating about how AI is being used to foster public trust and understanding.
