User Experience is the Missing Link in the Public Sector’s AI Journey

The Government has bold plans to embrace AI and digital tools across the public sector. Initiatives like the AI Opportunities Action Plan and the introduction of ‘Humphrey,’ a suite of AI tools designed to streamline administrative tasks, are part of a wider strategy to increase productivity and deliver better services to citizens.

The reason for this push is clear. Productivity in the public sector has fallen behind expectations, while demand for public services is rising. At the same time, the Government is asking departments to do more with less. The Chancellor’s recent spending review set ambitious efficiency targets, including a 4 percent annual saving across day-to-day spending by 2028/29. Departments like HMRC are expected to deliver as much as 13 percent.

While the ambition is right, the route to achieving these targets must be approached with care. Many past digital initiatives have fallen short, not because the technology wasn’t promising, but because the staff using it were not adequately supported. Civil servants often lack access to the right tools, struggle with legacy systems, or don’t receive the necessary training to get the most out of new platforms. Without addressing these user experience barriers, even the most sophisticated technologies will fail to deliver the intended results.

Why the Worker Experience Matters

Millions of citizens rely on digital public sector services every day, from local council portals to NHS booking systems. Yet despite significant digital investment, civil servants are frequently hampered by outdated systems or siloed platforms. For example, the NHS still runs dozens of separate patient databases. This results in fragmented workflows, duplicated efforts from staff and slower, more frustrating services for everyone.

The cost of these fragmented workflows is significant, with data showing that over £45 billion worth of unrealised savings and productivity benefits are missed due to the current level of digitisation within public sector services. 

While AI is seen as a potential game-changer for driving efficiencies, crucially civil servants will only be able to unlock its benefits if they can confidently adopt and use it.

That’s why user experience needs to be front and centre in any successful public sector transformation. In fact, 98 percent of public sector IT leaders say they must improve support for digital adoption considering AI. But addressing this challenge takes more than training alone. It requires a deeper understanding of the digital environment civil servants operate in.

Enter DEX: Digital Employee Experience

To ensure tools like AI are embedded effectively, monitoring the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) is crucial. Adopting a DEX approach enables organisations to improve how staff interact with technology on a day-to-day basis. The strategy gives IT teams visibility into what’s working and what’s not, including login issues, application crashes, or bottlenecks in system performance. Crucially, it helps flag when users need help or when tools are being underused.

Research shows that 93 percent of public sector workers are daunted by new technologies like generative AI and 96 percent expect digital transformation to increase digital friction. Without proactive support and real-time insights, this friction can derail productivity and undermine service delivery.

A strong DEX strategy ensures that civil servants get timely support, fast issue resolution and intuitive tools that fit seamlessly into their workflows. This frees up their time for critical tasks that ultimately improve services for citizens and communication between departments.

Efficiency and DEX Must Go Hand in Hand

To realise target savings, the public sector requires a more strategic, people-centred approach to transformation. That means designing systems around users and investing in training. Applying DEX insights will also help to remove issues before they become barriers.

Departments also need flexibility in how success is measured. As well as efficiencies, prioritising the digital experience of staff can drive long-term service improvements, better staff retention and citizen satisfaction.

This is why efficiency and employee experience are mutually reinforcing. Empowering civil servants with modern, reliable and integrated digital tools reduces manual work, accelerates decisions and improves outcomes for citizens.

In this sense, DEX is not a ‘nice to have’. It is essential infrastructure for a smarter, leaner and more resilient public sector.