It’s perhaps fair to say that governments are not usually the quickest at adopting new technologies, but this reticence does not appear to be dampening enthusiasm for technologies such as AI. At least, that’s the view of a recent survey of a few hundred government leaders by Accenture, which found that 90% of respondents were confident that AI would have a big impact on their work in the coming years, with 86% planning to increase their expenditure on AI in the coming year.
The most likely areas for such deployment is in customer service and risk management, with staff hoping to achieve greater efficiency and cost/time savings from their investment.
Despite the general enthusiasm for AI however, many respondents reported significant hurdles to overcome in delivering successful projects. For instance, many cited challenges in terms of getting high quality data to work with, or adapting AI logic to their specific context.
“AI is unlike any recent waves of technology change, it is truly transformational. That means it is complex to deploy and requires having solid foundations in place to ensure proper data strategy, governance and delivery success,” Accenture say. “As AI spending accelerates and delivery expectations increase, governments must address the systemic challenges and build the necessary foundations that are underpinned by trust to maximize the technology’s potential and ensure its successful deployment. Only with a new operating model that takes an organization-wide approach to deployments, undertaken in collaboration with an entire ecosystem of stakeholders can the full potential of AI deployments be achieved.”
Small acorns
Despite the apparent enthusiasm, the investments by departments in AI remain pretty small, with many citing investments of a few million dollars to run a handful of projects. Respondents also reveal a high risk of duplication across government due to poor internal collaboration and a general lack of leadership on AI deployments.
“Our findings indicate a need for greater education around AI technologies to ensure that organizations investing in AI do so efficiently and responsibly, with a deep understanding of the impact the technology will have on their organization and workforce,” Accenture say. “By fully understanding the opportunities presented by AI, forward-thinking public service organizations can become trailblazers for the adoption of AI across government and help to unlock a wide range of economic benefits that create better outcomes for citizens and society.”
It perhaps goes without saying that some governments are further ahead than others, with the UK performing (relatively) well, with around 75% of government respondents investing at least $15 million per year on AI.
