Public sector struggling with prospect of AI

With Whitehall urging the public sector to accelerate AI experimentation and adoption, new research suggests that 43 percent of public sector IT leaders struggle to put an exact monetary value on AI investments, while 96 percent want to improve their ability to identify underperforming investments.

The survey of public sector IT decision makers (ITDMs) by digital employee experience (DEX) management firm Nexthink also shows that most public sector IT leaders (96 percent) believe digital transformation will increase digital friction.

The research contends that only 47 percent of public sector employees are considered to have the digital dexterity required to adapt to technological change. A further 93 percent expect workers to be daunted by new technologies such as generative AI.

Nexthink said that with limited digital dexterity across the public sector and IT leaders struggling to define the value and impact of AI investments, there is a growing risk that AI initiatives stall at the pilot phase or erode public trust in government-led AI innovation.

“The UK government is dealing with two competing challenges,” said Shantanu Singh, public sector lead, UK&I at Nexthink. “On the one hand, there is an obligation to provide consistent, uninterrupted public services while at the same time, they are supposed to transform, digitally modernise and adopt new technologies. This is a phenomenally tricky balancing act and one that’s impossible if civil servants themselves are struggling with substandard digital experiences.”

Public sector under pressure

Public sector IT leaders expect a 44 percent rise in the volume of applications being used over the next three years. In fact, 71 percent report that their organisation rolls out a new application, tool, or platform once a month. But 68 percent admit there are too many users in the organisation for IT to provide adequate adoption support for everyone.

Without proper guidance, application rollouts suffer, leading to lower productivity (65 percent), reduced collaboration (54 percent), increased IT support tickets (47 percent), and higher employee dissatisfaction (45 percent).

“The public sector is under immense cost pressure and it’s vital for every department make the most out of their IT investments and unlock higher Civil Servant productivity,” said Singh. “Without clear visibility and insight into the user experience, it’s simply not possible. With all departments going through such intense digital transformation, it’s essential to have good DEX metrics in place to drive adoption of new tools as well as identifying and removing cultural or technological barriers to public services efficiency.”