Can AI Help Government Agencies Operate More Efficiently?

As AI grows in acceptance throughout the modern economy, government agencies need to know whether adopting AI can be beneficial in their day-to-day operations. In fact, at this point, the question is no longer whether, but how. From automating repetitive clerical tasks, to providing analysis and even assisting with decision making, there are many areas of an agency's daily operations where AI could improve processes within government agencies. Let’s take a look at some examples to understand this potential.

AI for Back-Office Administrative Tasks

One thing government employees famously have to deal with is a lot of paperwork and recordkeeping. In order to carry out their purpose while also being accountable to the public, government agency workers must follow complex procedures to the letter. Government agencies may also have to contend with keeping track of and organizing this large amount of paperwork and inventory in order to operate efficiently. However, manual data entry, document processing, and asset tracking can take up a lot of employee time and energy. AI solutions can automate many of these back-office administrative tasks to increase productivity.?

Using optical character recognition, natural language processing, and data extraction tools, AI can scan documents to automatically classify, route, and extract relevant information, meaning that human employees will not have to take the considerable amount of time to conduct a manual review and perform data entry. AI can also assist with inventory management powered by computer vision and sensor data, enabling agencies to track assets and supplies across multiple locations accurately and continuously. By deploying AI to handle routine documentation and inventory management workflows, staff hours can be redirected from monotonous administrative work to more creative problem-solving work that drives the organization’s mission. AI can help an agency to gain new insights from their data while optimizing supply chain visibility and documentation processing.

AI for Hiring: Significant Potential with Significant Caveats

Talent acquisition and hiring take up a lot of time in any organization, and this may be especially true with more stringent requirements in the government hiring process. AI has hiring applications that can be adopted in a government setting, with careful attention to the potential ethical considerations involved.?

For example, intelligent screening tools can identify and engage candidates that best match required applicant characteristics and qualifications. In addition to analyzing written applications, initial applicant screening can be automated via chatbots that filter on qualifications before human review. AI can analyze the records of your existing employees in the same or similar roles to determine actual position requirements to further optimize job descriptions. This enables focused, efficient recruiting that surfaces strong candidates from expanded candidate pools in a fraction of the time previously required.?

To be clear, employers have been automating portions of their hiring process for decades. First used in the 1990s, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can use algorithms to sort through thousands of resumes according to specific criteria, advancing only those that best conform to the employer’s criteria. However, there is a growing awareness of the potential for AI to reflect and even magnify bias in hiring.?

Ethical Considerations in AI for Hiring

Ethical considerations are present any time an organization implements AI, but there are particular pitfalls to watch out for when using AI for recruiting. These risks relate to bias, transparency, and fairness in hiring. A major risk is that biases inherent in previous hiring data and decisions can be reflected and amplified by algorithmic systems. This can lead to discrimination against candidates based on race, gender, age, or other protected characteristics. AI screening tools may also fail to consider relevant context, evaluating applicants narrowly on select criteria like keywords. Finally, the lack of transparency around how these AI systems make decisions compounds the issue.

It is therefore important to work with vendors who communicate clearly about how their software works and can help you to evaluate the conclusions that the AI is drawing from your hiring data. A simple example is that if the AI is told to look for candidates who are likely to be hired, and your company data reflects that you historically have hired more people with certain demographic characteristics, the AI will start to look for people with those characteristics. It is important to watch out for and catch these problems when implementing AI in hiring.

Analysis and AI-Assisted Decision Making

AI-assisted decision making might sound frightening, but the key is in the word “assisted.” AI can only assist; it should never be allowed to make decisions on its own. At this time, AI lacks an understanding of human emotion as well as the ethical nuances that can be involved in making improtant decisions. However, it can provide information in a focused way that supports humans who are able to leverage their emotional and ethical judgment to carry out business operations. Viewing AI as a partner rather than a replacement will allow for the strengths of AI and human beings to collaborate effectively.

Infrastructure monitoring and predictive maintenance are two areas in which AI can help with analysis. As computer vision improves it may be able to identify potential structural issues like microfractures, corrosion, and deterioration in roads, bridges, and railways in video and images. With earlier detection, transportation agencies can pinpoint areas needing repair and schedule maintenance before the damage becomes more serious and more expensive to remedy. AI systems can also monitor sensor data from infrastructure components for signs of impending equipment failure, like anomalous vibrations, temperatures, or load levels. With AI-enabled analysis, government agencies can receive risk assessments and recommended maintenance to keep critical infrastructure in good repair.

Find The Right AI Solutions For Your Organization’s Operations with Square Peg Technologies

From simple to complex, mundane to mission-critical, every aspect of your operations can benefit from the appropriate technology solutions, including those leveraging AI. Changing long-standing processes can result in resistance, so getting buy-in from employees at all levels for these initiatives is also important, and training to ensure a smooth transition matters as well.

The recent, rapid increase in the popularity of AI and the corresponding expansion of AI-based products and services means that a lot of options are available when it comes to getting started with AI. All organizations, including government agencies, need to be on guard to ensure that they are not dazzled by product features or over-the-top services that may ultimately not deliver the results they need. At the same time, the risk of not embracing the potential of AI and being left behind are also significant.?

To avoid using technology for technology’s sake, and to ensure that your goals remain at the center of all of your digital transformation efforts, work with the experts at Square Peg Technologies. Find out how we can support your objectives through custom technology solutions. Contact us today!