Robots are being used to help Brits stranded abroad, plan lessons for teachers and identify unhygienic restaurants as ministers step up plans to integrate artificial intelligence more and more into public services.
Sir Keir Starmer has promised to deploy AI as much as possible in the public sector as he bids to push down costs and avoid having to hike taxes, borrow more money or make painful cuts.
He told MPs on the Commons liaison committee recently: “I think AI is going to transform not just the delivery of public service, not just productivity within our economy, not just the way we deliver in government – it is going to change the lives of people throughout the country in ways we can barely imagine at the moment.”
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has started publishing algorithmic transparency records, which show when Whitehall departments or other agencies are using AI tools in their interactions with citizens or behind the scenes.
Science Secretary Peter Kyle told The i Paper: “We are revolutionising the way that government works to improve public services for everyone and help us deliver our plan for change. Artificial intelligence has a crucial role to play and so far we’ve used it to cut backlogs, save money, and get better results for people across the country.
“The Treasury is using AI to predict tax and benefit changes, making policy analysis faster and more accurate, while maintaining oversight by highly qualified civil servants. In my department, AI is helping streamline recruitment by matching job descriptions with the right skills, so we can quickly find qualified candidates.
“I make no apologies for making full use of technology, but I also believe it’s essential to be transparent about how and why we’re using algorithmic tools in the public sector. This helps build trust and ensures these tools are effective. That’s why we’re committed to taking bold actions, like releasing these records, so people can see exactly how we’re trialling and applying technology to improve public services.”
The Network Rail website has replaced its “live chat” function, which previously used human advisors, with an AI-powered chatbot.
The so-called “digital assistant” is intended to deal quickly with the simplest queries, such as by directing users to an FAQ page, while passing the most complex 15 per cent of questions on to a person.
Consular triage
The Foreign Office receives 100,000 queries a year from people requiring consular assistance of some sort, with the large majority being fairly routine.
A new model powered by AI automatically picks between a number of stock responses, and also provides information about topics that it thinks the user is asking about. If they are not satisfied with the algorithmic reply, they can ask to be passed on to a member of staff.
An online pension calculator provided by the Department for Work and Pensions tells people who are close for retirement how much income they are likely to have when they stop working, to help them make decisions about their savings and their working arrangements.
The algorithm also suggests ways that people can boost their future income, such as by increasing their pension contributions.
Lesson planner
Oak National Academy, the state-sponsored online learning platform, has built an AI Lesson Assistant known as “Aila”, which allows teachers to create personalised resources for their classes.
It plugs in to OpenAI’s GPT large-language model to talk through which of the resources provided through Oak might be appropriate for the class, and then combines them into a lesson plan with a slide deck and worksheet for use by pupils.
Emails sent by members of the public to the Treasury are run through an algorithm which detects how urgent they are, summarises their contents and decides which minister they are relevant to.
It also suggests “standard lines” in response to routine questions, although these have to be finalised and signed off by a member of staff.
Preserving historic documents
The Cabinet Office has partly automated the process of sifting through millions of digital documents to work out which ones need to be kept permanently for the historic record.
The tool, provided by a firm called Automated Intelligence, picks out patterns of words which are commonly found in the most routine documents to flag them for potential deletion, with the final decision made by a person.
Local councils which want to decide which restaurants, cafes and pubs to inspect for possible hygiene violations can consult a tool hosted by the Food Standards Agency.
This predicts what the likely hygiene rating for each establishment will be – meaning councils can prioritise those likely to have the biggest problems.
Find an exporter
Staff at the Department for Business and Trade use an AI tool to identify firms which are likely to be exporters and which could therefore benefit from engagement with the Government in helping them boost their overseas trade links.
The algorithm uses data from HMRC and Companies House to attach a rating to each firm from “very low” to “very high” so that officials do not need to sift through records manually or wait for companies to contact them proactively.
Budget model
The Treasury is using a “modelling policy engine” that draws on extensive data about household incomes in the UK to work out how families would be affected by changes to taxes or benefits.
When civil servants input possible new policies, the programme applies their effects to every individual and household in the dataset and produces new averages showing how their disposable income has changed.
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