New qualitative insight from the National Centre for Social Research has revealed positive sentiment regarding artificial intelligence in the civil servant and government, but people were essential for many public-facing tasks.
Commissioned by the Office for National Statistics, the study included opinions from people working in four key areas – health, education, social security and public safety. The use of AI to improve efficiency of administrative tasks was the focus.
The most significant takeaways included the fact that even within organisations, personal understanding and individual knowledge of AI influenced the likelihood of adopting tools. Nevertheless, the work found most participants positively responded to the introduction of automation, provided there was a rational business case and careful analysis of costs and benefits.
Implementation was also a fundamental concern, and safeguards must be in place to overcome risks, including data threats, and ensure service users’ needs are being met. But providing this takes place, the potential for AI to reduce stress, lower workloads, and enable staff to focus on more impactful tasks was considered to be high. Chatbots, reporting and data summary tools, automatic signposting, report writing, and training were also considered to be huge benefits.
However, ‘participants also emphasised the importance of retaining human-led activities and human-to-human interactions, particularly for tasks that require professional judgment, risk assessments, empathy, creativity, and ingenuity,’ said the National Centre for Social Research’s summary of the study. It also emphasised that staff advocate ‘caution around relying on AI and automation in situations where the technology had the potential to make errors or where it could struggle to account for the complexities and nuances involved in carrying out certain tasks’.
Last month, Labour unveiled far-reaching plans to automate vast numbers of public sector tasks in a bid to free up valuable time and human resources for other responsibilities.
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