UK leads in European government AI adoption

The UK is leading in European government AI adoption, with three-quarters (75 percent) of public sector organisations either exploring or actively working on gen AI initiatives.

A new Capgemini Research Institute report, ‘Data foundations for government – From AI ambition to execution,’ also indicates that public sector organisations globally are preparing to embrace agentic AI, with 90 percent planning to explore, pilot, or implement the technology within the next 2-3 years.

However, their data readiness remains a challenge, hindering their ability to leverage the full potential of AI. The report notes that currently, they face significant challenges with trust, compliance, data management and data sharing.

Data security (78 percent), data sovereignty (78 percent), and cost constraints (68 percent) are the top factors limiting the adoption of gen AI in UK public sector organisations.

Agentic AI initiatives

January saw the Government Digital Service (GDS) outline plans for the ‘wholesale reshaping of the public sector’ alongside its Blueprint for Modern Digital Government. It includes proposals to reform how AI and digital services are funded, assured and procured to target £45 billion in productivity savings every year.

According to the new report, within the next 2-3 years, 39 percent of public sector organisations aim to evaluate the feasibility of agentic AI, 45 percent intend to explore pilot programmes, and six percent plan to scale their existing agentic AI initiatives.

It found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of organisations have progressed to pilots and scaled deployments, or are exploring gen AI, with this number rising to 82 percent in defence agencies, 75 percent in healthcare, and 70 percent in security.

“With rising citizen demands and stretched resources, public sector organisations recognize the ways in which AI can help them do more with less. However, the ability to deploy gen AI and agentic AI depends on having rock-solid data foundations,” said Marc Reinhardt, public sector global industry leader at Capgemini.

“Looking ahead, governments can be more agile and effective as AI augments the work of government employees to source information, conduct policy analysis, make decisions, and answer citizen queries. However, to reach this future, governments need to focus on building the right data infrastructure and governance frameworks.”

Data sharing concerns and the rise of the CDO

Data sharing initiatives are further complicated by concerns about data, cloud, and AI sovereignty. Despite all public sector organisations surveyed either having or planning to have data sharing initiatives, they are not yet mature; most organisations (65 percent) worldwide are still in the planning or pilot stages.

The report finds that only 12 percent of organisations consider themselves very mature in activating data, while seven percent report being very mature in nurturing data and AI-related skills. Only a fifth (21 percent) of public sector organisations surveyed have the required data to train and fine-tune AI models, including gen AI models.

However, as many as 64 percent of public sector organisations already have a chief data officer (CDO), while 24 percent plan to appoint one, showing a willingness to invest in dedicated leadership for data-driven governance. Furthermore, the increasing strategic value of AI has resulted in more than a quarter (27 percent) of public sector organisations appointing a chief AI officer, over a quarter (27 percent) already having one and 41 percent planning to introduce this new C-level role.

Meanwhile, three-quarters (75 percent) of UK public sector organisations are concerned about the environmental impact of gen AI.