By James Johns, Head of Corporate Affairs, UK, Workday
The new Labour government has set its sights on growth.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have repeatedly highlighted their ambitions to bolster the economy. Meanwhile, the word ‘growth’ featured a healthy 74 times in the King’s Speech laying out the government’s plans.
While the government will be exploring many levers for growth – from investment in sustainable industry to adjusting corporate regulation – one of the most important will be boosting public services. As the party’s manifesto argued, “Improving public services is essential to growing our economy across the country.”
However, the new government faces constraints when it comes to spending. Reeves has re-committed to fiscal rules governing the UK’s debt-to-GDP ratio and budget deficit, and has also highlighted the current shortfall in public finances as a limiting factor in her department’s decision making.
With these limitations in mind, making better use of existing resources will be crucial if the government is to achieve its ambitions for public service improvement. For that reason, new technologies that can transform efficiency, including AI, have a critical role to play.
Recognising AI’s potential
The UK government appears poised to seize the opportunity that AI presents. The announcement of the AI Action Plan, led by the entrepreneur and Chair of Advanced Research And Innovation Agency (ARIA), Matt Clifford, underlines the government’s appetite.
Clifford’s goal is to identify how AI can better drive economic growth and improve outcomes for people across the UK. It’s a significant brief given the broad range of benefits AI can offer. Workday’s recent report ‘The UK Productivity Gap: How AI can untap workplace potential’ found UK enterprises alone could untap £119bn worth of additional productive work through adoption of the technology. According to the International Monetary Fund, the UK as a whole could see a 1.5% boost to productivity annually thanks to AI.
Beyond the brief for the AI Action Plan, the new government is making further strides to improve digitisation in public services. An early machinery of government change has given the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology an expanded size and scope, bringing experts from the Government Digital Service, the Central Digital and Data Office, and the Incubator for AI together with their civil service colleagues responsible for the digital economy. The goal of this newly-formed team is to unite efforts in the digital transformation of public services under one department.
Clearly, the ambition of the new government to embrace innovative technology and grasp the opportunities it presents is there. However, beyond the flagship announcements, what are the use cases and solutions policymakers should explore to turn these significant ambitions into reality?
Deploying AI in public services
Between 2022 and 2032 the market for AI tools is expected to grow from $40 billion to $1.3 trillion. Underpinning that explosive growth is a huge number of new software products. AI services and features are hitting the market constantly, and this pace shows no signs of slowing.
For the government, this presents a twofold challenge: first, identifying the right AI tools to use. Second, adopting them and deploying them effectively and safely while staying up to date with ongoing innovations. For an entity as amorphous as the UK public sector, this is easier said than done.
One of the biggest risks is that in evaluating the vast array of new AI tools and platforms, public sector leaders are unable to see the forest for the trees. That’s because it’s not necessarily ‘new’ tools that will offer the greatest AI benefits – in many cases it’s through the integration of AI into established platforms where the most immediate benefits can be realised.
While this isn’t cause for complacency – there are many legacy systems that will still require updating or replatforming across the UK’s public sector – the benefits of AI may be closer than first thought.
Take Workday for example. We’ve been investing in AI for nearly a decade, using it to help push the boundaries of human potential. It’s embedded into our applications and features, rather than bolted on at the end. That means for organisations using Workday, whether it’s identifying skill gaps at scale or eliminating repetitive administrative tasks, AI adoption can happen seamlessly.
Because Workday is cloud-native, there’s no need for lengthy builds, time-consuming testing, complex coding or the deployment of new software to get the most from new AI features. Instead, organisations can opt-in to new features as they become available – helping them stay up to date without constantly monitoring the market for new products.
Engaging a trusted solution provider also offers peace of mind when it comes to one of the big concerns around AI in the public sector: data security. At Workday, we’re committed to bolstering trust and transparency in AI, which is why we offer full details on our responsible AI approach publicly. We’re likewise proud to work closely with industry leaders and policy makers – informing frameworks such as the European Union’s AI Act and emerging guidance in the UK – to ensure responsible use of AI.
Grasping the AI opportunity
Growth, nurtured by the improvement of public services, is a tentpole ambition for the UK’s new government. While the fiscal challenges Labour faces to achieving it are significant, the recent strides being made in AI technology play to their favour.
As Parliament returns from recess and new ministers delve into their briefs across the public services, they must continue the momentum already laid down with the instigation of the AI Action Plan and other initiatives. By embracing new AI innovations from trusted providers, they’ll be well positioned to tap efficiency, nurture productivity and ultimately turn those growth ambitions into reality.
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