While the public sector continues to evolve with advancing technology, its core objective remains unchanged: ensuring that all citizens, regardless of socio-economic status, physical abilities, or geographic location, have equal access to public services. This objective, commonly known as inclusive governance, has led the sector to continually embrace advanced technologies to improve citizen engagement, streamline operations, and make informed decisions. In the 1990s, the advent of the internet led the public sector to adopt e-government, making public services available online and allowing governments to interact with citizens through websites. Today, generative AI is taking on a similar transformative role, changing how users interact with services, offering personalized experiences, improving accessibility and streamlining the workplaces. Recognizing its potential, the public sector is increasingly investing in generative AI, with productivity gains estimated to reach $1.75 trillion annually by 2033, according to BCG. This article explores how generative AI is shaping the future of public services and advancing the goals of inclusive governance.
Enhancing Accessibility
Generative AI is making public services more accessible by reducing the barriers that have long affected marginalized and underserved communities. Traditional public service models often struggle to reach these groups due to a lack of personalized assistance, language barriers, and challenges faced by individuals with disabilities. Generative AI is helping address these issues in several ways:
Generative AI-powered tools like chatbots and virtual assistants are providing personalized support, making it easier for people to navigate complex bureaucratic systems. For example, in Heidelberg, Germany, the city has introduced Lumi, a chatbot that assists citizens and visitors with various inquiries, from changing addresses to getting information on waste collection. Lumi pulls from publicly available city data and improves over time based on user interactions.
Generative AI-powered translation tools are also removing language barriers, ensuring that non-native speakers can access important information and services in their preferred language. This is especially important in multicultural societies where language diversity is significant. For instance, the cities of Stockton and Fairfield in California have introduced a translation tool that residents can use via mobile or web channels, allowing them to communicate with local governments in 71 languages through Amazon Translate. In India, the Jugalbandi project uses generative AI-powered chatbots on WhatsApp and Telegram to help rural residents access government services in their own languages. These chatbots can respond in both text and speech, currently supporting 10 languages and covering 171 government programs, making it easier for citizens to get the information they need.
Generative AI-driven assistive technologies are also improving accessibility for individuals with disabilities. This is vital as in 2023, people with at least one disability made up 13 percent of the U.S. population, and their participation in the workforce increased from 21.3 to 22.5 percent between 2022 and 2023. To support these individuals, the U.S. Department of Justice recently issued guidelines requiring state and local governments to ensure their websites and mobile apps are accessible. Organizations are responding by developing generative AI-powered screen readers like VoiceOver for iOS and TalkBack for Android, allowing visually impaired individuals to navigate government websites and access information more independently.
Enhancing Citizen Engagement
Besides accessibility, another crucial aspect of inclusive governance is to establish an effective engagement with the citizens. Government organizations handle a wide range of functions, from public health initiatives to tourism promotion. When citizens contact agencies with inquiries, human agents often face the challenge of quickly finding and summarizing this data, which can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. This can sometimes fall short of citizens’ expectations for effective and engaging interactions.
Generative AI-powered virtual assistants are helping to address these challenges by providing personalized responses to citizen inquiries. For example, EMMA is a chatbot developed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under the Department of Homeland Security. EMMA assists users with a range of services, including immigration, green cards, and passports, and supports both English and Spanish. The English version even allows for voice interactions, guiding users through the website. EMMA handles around 1 million interactions each month, showing its value in improving citizen engagement.
Similarly, the Australian Government uses a chatbot named Alex to help individuals and businesses with tax-related issues, like property rights, income, deductions, and filing returns. Alex efficiently directs users to relevant content, saving time and improving the overall user experience.
Making Inclusive Decision
A key aspect of inclusive governance is fair and unbiased decision-making irrespective of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or personal connections of citizens. Generative AI is helping public sector in making inclusive decisions. One notable example of inclusive decision-making in the public sector is the growing use of generative AI-powered automated recruitment process. This system screen resumes and applications in a way that minimizes human bias. By hiding personal details and focusing solely on relevant qualifications and experience, generative AI helps to ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on their merit alone.
For instance, New York City’s use of generative AI-driven recruitment platforms has led to a more diverse pool of candidates by standardizing evaluations and removing personal identifiers. Similarly, the UK’s Civil Service uses AI to filter applications and assess diversity, which improves the fairness of its hiring practices.
Developing Inclusive Policies
Generative AI is transforming policy development by enabling a more inclusive approach through data analysis. By examining extensive datasets, AI helps identify the needs and preferences of various population groups, ensuring that policies reflect the interests of all citizens and lead to more equitable outcomes.
For example, the City of Los Angeles utilizes AI-driven analytics to better understand community needs and optimize resource allocation. By analyzing data related to housing, transportation, and public health, the city can make informed decisions that address the requirements of its diverse and often marginalized populations.
Similarly, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) leverages generative AI to forecast patient demand for healthcare services. This analysis of patient data and trends allows the NHS to allocate resources more effectively, ensuring that vulnerable groups receive the timely care they need.
Ensuring Responsible Use of Generative AI in Public Sector
While generative AI holds immense potential for transforming public sector, it must be used responsibly to ensure that this technology benefits all citizens fairly and equitably. To achieve this, public sector agencies are crafting policies that address these challenges. Examples of such policies include the EU’s AI Act, which aims to regulate high-risk AI applications, and the U.S. Algorithmic Accountability Act, which focuses on transparency and fairness in AI systems. Some key guidelines of these policies are:
- Ensure Transparency and Explainability: Generative AI systems should be designed to operate transparently. This requires providing clear explanations of how generative AI make decisions and ensuring that their processes are understandable to non-experts. Transparency helps build trust and allows citizens to comprehend how and why decisions are made.
- Ensure Fairness and Unbiasedness: Generative AI systems can inadvertently perpetuate or amplify biases present in the data they are trained on. To mitigate this risk, it is important to regularly evaluate AI models for potential biases and take corrective measures to address any identified issues.
- Prioritize Data Privacy and Security: A major challenge in implementing generative AI in the public sector is ensuring the security of sensitive data. Public sector data is often highly sensitive and must be always protected. To effectively use generative AI, it is crucial to ensure that data privacy and security measures are rigorously maintained.
- Fostering Accountability: Accountability is a crucial aspect of using generative AI in promoting inclusive governance. This includes setting up independent bodies or committees to monitor the deployment and effects of AI systems. It also involves creating feedback channels for the public to ensure that community input leads to necessary adjustments and improvements.
The Bottom Line
Generative AI is transforming the public sector by enhancing accessibility, improving citizen engagement, and fostering inclusive decision-making. Its ability to provide personalized support, overcome language barriers, and assist those with disabilities makes public services more equitable and efficient. As public sector agencies increasingly integrate generative AI, they must navigate challenges related to transparency, fairness, and data security. Responsible implementation, guided by robust policies and ethical standards, is essential to ensuring that generative AI truly advances the goal of inclusive governance, making services more accessible and equitable for all citizens.
