The UK, like many other major nations, is turning to AI to support public and Government services and leverage its power to drive greater efficiency and productivity. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer outlined his plans earlier this year to ‘mainline AI into the veins of the nation’ and revolutionise how AI is used in the public sector, suggesting that if these technologies are fully embraced an additional £47 billion could be added to the economy every year. This is critical at a time when extra investment is certainly needed. The AI Action Plan also outlines that an additional £14 billion – and in reality, likely much more – is set to be invested by the private sector, which will create approximately 13,000 jobs, largely in the construction and development of large-scale data centres.
However, while there is a lot of talk about AI as the potential solution to everything, there is limited focus on how it will be introduced and embedded into the public sector. While it presents a chance for the Government to re-energise our economy, the proposals also suggest the potential for significant risk. But what are the opportunities and challenges of public sector AI adoption, and what factors are blocking effective transformation?
Public sector AI adoption
I have been vocal on the fact that a shortage of technical expertise is a key factor impacting fully effective public sector AI adoption. Put simply, there are too few leaders within the upper echelons of Government with the relevant understanding required to deliver major, large-scale projects like this. It’s one thing saying that we will revolutionise the use of AI in the public sector, and another to do it. To deliver programmes of this scale, there must be leaders across multiple departments who recognise the opportunities and limitations of AI and, currently, we do not have a sufficient number of those individuals within the Government. AI adoption is not a policy problem to be solved but a delivery opportunity to be realised – so delivery must be the strategy.
This ultimately means that the full potential of some of the available solutions is not being fully appreciated. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that can be fixed overnight, and it is an issue that has impacted previous administrations as well. But when we consider the role that technology now plays in modern life, ensuring our public service leaders have the necessary advice and understanding could support more nuanced and strategic decision-making.
Legacy systems
Existing legacy technology is also a significant blocker to progress. The Government and many public sector organisations have major technical debt and are still using systems that are up to four decades old, which means that there is no truly effective platform for AI transformation and investment. In essence, it is like building a Ferrari from scratch but using an Austin Metro engine.
To capitalise on the opportunities offered by AI in the public sector there needs to be major digital transformation and a full-scale overhaul of existing outdated platforms. This isn’t only a matter of productivity, but security too. Older systems are far more vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data breaches than newer platforms, which are built with a security-first approach.
The growth of cloud and mobile environments has only magnified the weak spots in our defences, and AI could rip them wide open. Public data and finances are at stake, and relying on older systems is only increasing the risk, as well as blocking further transformation in the future.
I understand that securing investment is difficult; not only are there major financial challenges to deal with, but upgrading older systems isn’t as appealing as headline-grabbing areas like AI. After all, few politicians would rather focus on a tech platform over creating a school or hospital. But to build a house you must have solid foundations and, currently, there is not enough focus on ensuring that all architecture is modernised and capable of delivering on future demands. Without putting these building blocks in place, it will be challenging to extract the full value offered by AI.
Public procurement
Thirdly, and perhaps most significantly, there are also major and deep-rooted issues with public procurement processes. There has been a historical tendency to choose the biggest organisations for major digital programmes and to go for an ‘off the shelf’ solution when a more tailored approach would be more effective.
This has contributed to the growing technical debt mentioned previously, and this needs to be halted. Frameworks should be adapted to support more transparent decision-making that will prevent the biggest organisations from being selected every time because of their scale, over their ability to deliver the best solution for the task at hand.
Moving the focus here will enable public sector bodies to begin to shift their technical debt and, in conjunction with a greater focus on sourcing high-level expertise, will help the Government to better capitalise on AI.
Falling productivity
The opportunities are there to be seen; the UK trails behind almost every other major nation in terms of productivity. Every year, public sector bodies lose millions of hours which are wasted processing forms, reviewing data, and fixing errors. This could be drastically reduced by tackling some of the older, legacy systems in place, and introducing AI.
Ultimately, the move to invest in AI is a positive and well-intentioned one and, like other shifts such as the expansion in the size and scope of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), suggests that the Government is moving in the right direction.
There are several other challenges that we haven’t touched on, including notable gaps in semiconductor supply planning, and issues over data centre energy use. In addition, hesitancy around AI adoption and the greater need for dedicated resources will also persist.
However, before those can be tackled, and to make investments in the raft of emerging developments truly effective, we first need to reassess our existing legacy technology and procurement processes – in addition to recruiting more experts capable of leading this charge.
We need to be bold.
