Authored by: Kevin Kowalkowski
AI is everywhere, from headlines to smartphones to agency planning sessions. And for many public sector organizations, the question remains: What exactly does AI mean for our organization, and how should we begin using it?
While the buzz keeps growing, teams can feel overwhelmed by all the possibilities and unsure exactly where to begin. Often the answer lies in focusing on the specific use cases that offer the most immediate improvements to workflows, constituent experiences, and long-standing pain points. Knowing exactly where AI can make the largest impact can help you identify the best starting point.
Where Is AI Delivering Results in the Public Sector?
Many government agencies have already started to successfully experiment in a variety of areas with AI. For example, documentation classification and field extraction are opportunities for early quick wins.
These tasks are usually tedious and time-consuming, but AI can make them more efficient by automating the capture process. By accurately identifying document types and pulling key data points, teams can reduce manual work and move downstream processes along much faster.
Another area gaining traction is how constituents interact with government services. For example, a user might visit your city’s website to find out when their trash day is and try searching for it in the search bar. But if they don’t type the information exactly as expected, they might not get the answer they need and end up at a dead end. AI has the potential to solve this challenge.
Instead of relying on outdated search functions buried in complex navigation, agencies can use AI tools that understand natural language, both written and spoken. These tools can interpret requests in multiple languages, offering more inclusive access for people with accessibility needs or those who don’t speak English.
Why Accessibility Is Driving AI Adoption
Recent legislation has also raised the bar for accessibility expectations. Agencies must now meet specific standards to ensure all constituents, regardless of ability, can access services and information.
This is another area where AI can play an important role. With the right applications, agencies could improve how constituents engage with services, whether they’re requesting information on a mobile device or using assistive technology to navigate a website.
The key to using AI in this way is careful implementation. For example, I recently tried to order a pizza and was redirected to an AI-powered process. It was clunky and difficult to use, and there wasn’t an easy way to reach a person when I ran into problems. In public services, you have an opportunity to automate many processes, but it’s important to consider when to bring in a person and how quickly that should happen.
A Practical Starting Point for AI
For public organizations still on the fence about their best next action, I’d recommend starting now and starting small. What’s happening with AI reminds me of what happened with the cloud years ago. Those who waited to move their data lost out on a decade’s worth of efficiency, and I don’t think AI is any different.
For the public sector, even modest efficiency gains with AI can make a big difference in how you serve constituents and make the most of your internal resources. But getting started doesn’t have to mean jumping in all at once. You can begin with one defined use case that’s easy to measure and build from there.
Do you want to see where AI is headed in the public sector? Check out our infographic featuring real-world AI use cases to spark ideas and help you find your best starting point.