Every public sector employee in the UK spends more than eight hours per week managing data and performing routine administrative tasks, according to Microsoft’s 2024 Harnessing the Power of AI for the Public Sector report. The research shows that 45 per cent of respondents are “drowning in unnecessary administrative tasks”, with 55 per cent saying this workload negatively impacts their ability to get on with the day job, and nearly half indicating it compromises the quality of service they provide and limits how long they can spend directly interacting with the public.
However, the report also states that automating routine administrative processes with generative artificial intelligence technology could save each of the UK’s almost six million public sector workers over four hours per week, an overall saving of 23 million hours. Unlocking additional productivity could drive significant economic benefits. Research from Public First predicts that if AI is rolled out effectively, it could save the UK’s public sector over £17 billion ($22.4 million) by 2035.
Governments and city leaders across the world are evaluating how generative AI could help them to overcome challenges such as rapidly growing urban populations, inequality, safety and security, and climate change, says Didier Ongena, global government lead at Microsoft.
“We’re at the forefront of one of the biggest technology transformations I’ve witnessed in my 20 years at Microsoft,” says Ongena. “Generative AI is fundamentally changing how governments and cities operate, making it possible to improve their current services and deliver them at a much wider scale than ever before. They can also now implement some of the many innovations they have been pursuing for a long time, and capitalise on opportunities that would previously have been impossible or prohibitively expensive.
“In much the same way that low-code/no-code capabilities enable organisations to rapidly develop their own applications without skilled resources, generative AI is helping them to achieve goals such as automating tasks or creating chatbots without having to invest in expensive technology and external experts.”
Generative AI-powered assistants and chatbots built on tools such as Microsoft Copilot and Azure OpenAI Service provide citizens with self-service tools they can use to rapidly access information about public services, transportation, utilities and more.
Canada’s City of Kelowna, for instance, has implemented an Azure-based AI assistant from Zammo.ai to provide citizens with plainly written or spoken guidance about more than 300 non-emergency municipal services. Now, they can get information about everything from the city’s airport to property taxes, landfill regulations, public utilities and the winter snowploughing schedule within minutes. The assistant can also guide citizens through the planning permission process for building new housing units on their land, eliminating the need for them to wait a long time for an in-person appointment.
The Canadian city of Kelowna has created a generative AI chatbot to guide citizens through the planning permsission process
Elsewhere, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and Microsoft partner TEIA have built an Azure-powered search engine to give the public access to thousands of historical legal documents and other data. And in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s 1.2 million customers can use chatbot Rammas to find out information about electricity and water services.
Other governments and cities are using generative AI to automate basic clerical tasks and quickly interrogate vast volumes of accurate data, so employees can work more productively, make better-informed decisions and deliver personalised customer experiences. In the USA, for example, employees working for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection can use two different self-service, Azure OpenAI-based chatbots developed by Microsoft partner Acuvate to quickly resolve common IT and human resources-related issues. Employees now have 24/7 access to help, allowing them to remain productive at all times, and the organisation has eliminated the costs of responding to after-hours requests.
“Our business value assessments show that new AI capabilities are empowering civil servants to work much more productively and effectively, while delivering higher-quality outputs,” says Ongena. “Using AI to automate clerical tasks and provide self-service solutions also allows organisations to strategically redeploy call centre staff to handle complex cases and higher-value tasks. For example, they could assist members of the public who are unable or unwilling to interact with technology.”
Didier Ongena, Microsoft's global government lead, says AI is driving one of the biggest technology transformations in the past 20 years
In addition, governments and cities can use AI tools to automatically analyse, organise and make sense of the vast volumes of data they capture from their expanding internet of things (IoT) networks – and at a much greater speed and scale than would be possible for humans working alone. This is creating new opportunities to optimise operations such as urban planning, traffic management, safety, environmental sustainability and more.
“The city of Paris analysed traffic flows during big football games and identified that fans typically leave the stadium early if a certain team loses, but stay in the surrounding bars for a few hours afterwards if they win,” says Ongena. “Now, the city can optimise traffic flows and transportation services in real time based on how the game is being played.”
Meanwhile, city leaders in Brussels used a digital twin and AI to understand how banning cars from certain streets near schools during set hours would impact carbon dioxide emissions. “They expected the ban would reduce emissions but when they simulated it on the digital twin and analysed the data, they discovered it would have the opposite effect because it would cause so much congestion on other roads,” says Ongena. “It would have been very time-consuming and difficult for cities to gain this type of insight on their own in the past.”
Digital twins running on Microsoft technology are also being used to improve urban planning in Dublin, Ireland, water management in Gothenburg, Sweden, road safety in Alkmaar, Netherlands, and more. “Using digital twins to build virtual replicas of any physical assets and analysing the simulations with AI can significantly improve urban planning, infrastructure management, disaster response and more.”
To fully capitalise on technologies such as generative AI and digital twins for smart city projects, cities and government agencies must first modernise their IT environments. “High-quality data must be at the centre of any AI-powered smart city project,” says Ongena. “Governments will have to make three changes at once: migrate to the cloud, unify their data estate and adopt AI capabilities. On top of this, they must incorporate robust security measures, create ethical AI frameworks, train employees to effectively use the new technologies and capabilities, and manage cultural change for both their staff and citizens. It will be challenging, but a recent Gartner study showed that governments are now the top investors in AI – this is unprecedented as they’re historically slow to adopt new technologies – so it’s clear they don’t want to be left behind.”
Nevertheless, many governments and cities have lingering concerns about privacy, security, regulatory compliance and data sovereignty. Ongena acknowledges these fears but says they can take multiple steps to safely and securely implement the technologies.
“To establish trust with the public and other stakeholders, city leaders must clearly explain what AI tools they are using, what data they are collecting and how it will be used to improve citizen services or the urban environment,” he says. “They should also be fully transparent about the risks of AI and how they will be mitigated.”
In addition, cities should establish clear guidelines and best practices to ensure employees know how to interact with data and AI tools ethically and responsibly. “These frameworks should include basic principles designed to prevent employees unintentionally – or intentionally – misusing data or behaving in a way that increases the risk of a cybersecurity breach,” says Ongena. “Microsoft evaluates all its ideas and technologies against its own internal framework and advises governments and cities to take a similar approach to protect private data and stop it being used to train public generative AI tools. Guidelines should be reviewed and updated as AI evolves.”
Some governments have already established their own AI governance frameworks. Tokyo Metropolitan Government in Japan, for instance, consulted with experts and conducted a pilot study before publishing detailed, beginner-friendly guidelines to show staff how to use its private version of ChatGPT for clerical work and handle confidential information safely. Staff must also sign a mandatory form confirming they will use ChatGPT responsibly. The Portuguese government released a similar guide when its Administrative Modernization Agency piloted an Azure OpenAI-powered virtual assistant that helps citizens navigate digital authentication services. The agency also created a ‘frequently asked questions’ database to address public concerns about the AI assistant.
Deploying robust, layered security measures to further safeguard data and systems should also be a top priority for every government and city, says Ongena. He advises them to partner with experts from the private sector to ensure they have the best protection in place.
“Typically, governments lack specialised cybersecurity skills and resources in-house, so they should aim to leverage the expertise of external partners instead,” he says. “Finding the right partner is easier now that governments are migrating to the cloud and everything is happening at the platform or application level because they’re no longer restricted to working with big global systems integrators. Microsoft and our global ecosystem of partners have a long history of delivering AI, cloud, cybersecurity, data sovereignty and other solutions that meet governments’ specific needs.” Public-private sector partnerships can drive greater innovation too. “In Europe, governments are taking a new approach to tendering – rather than describing the technologies they want, they’re outlining the issue they’re facing and asking applicants to suggest possible solutions,” says Ongena. “This is creating opportunities for co-innovation and sandboxing, allowing technology providers to test their new ideas and solutions in the real world.”
Crucially, says Ongena, governments and cities must follow one key rule to ensure success. “Governments must place people, not technology, at the centre of smart city and AI initiatives,” he says. “This will ensure they’re developing solutions that solve real-world issues at a local level, while transforming both the employee and citizen experience, optimising their operations, saving costs and building climate-resilient urban environments.”
Partner perspectives
We asked selected Microsoft partners how they are using Microsoft cloud, AI and digital twin technologies to transform how governments and city leaders deliver public services and help them develop more connected, inclusive and sustainable urban environments
“Esri leverages AI with geographic information systems (GIS) to empower city leaders to develop sustainable, inclusive and safe urban environments for citizens,” said Dominik Tarolli, director of smart cities at Esri. “By integrating Azure, Esri enables city leaders to harness the power of cloud computing, allowing them to store, analyse and visualise vast amounts of geospatial data.”
“Hexagon leverages technologies like AI, cloud computing and geospatial data to support sustainable and efficient urban development,” said Cynthia Gomes, senior industry consultant at Hexagon. “By combining Microsoft’s cloud capabilities with advanced AI, Hexagon enables city leaders to harness data-driven insights for better decision-making, leading to more effective and equitable urban management.”
“Microsoft’s AI-powered cloud ecosystem is transforming urban management,” said Neet Gupta, AI lead for the Microsoft Practice at Infosys. “By tapping into AI, cities can become smarter about using their resources, keeping people safe, accelerating the pace of sustainability and building an inclusive ecosystem. For example, generative AI can help them to forecast crime hotspots with higher accuracy and improve waste management by optimising collection routes, predicting waste volume and identifying recyclable materials.”
Read more from these partners and others, including Microshare and Tiger Technology, in the Autumn 2024 issue of Technology Record. To get future issues delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for a free subscription.