The administrative process of the future, powered by AI

Anyone who wants to apply for a passport at the citizens' offices in Germany often needs a lot of patience. Long waiting times, too many unfilled positions - digitalization? Not a thing. High time to rethink administration!

According to a recent study, only 10 to 15 percent of companies and public authorities currently use intelligent technology in communication and end customer service (Capgemini IT Trends Study 2023). The importance and potential of generative AI are still simply underestimated.

If you currently look at the online platforms of large public authorities, you will find endless navigation paths, complex site maps and heaps of deep links. Poor chatbots currently replace one or two clicks at most, but rarely lead users directly to their destination. Generative AI offers a unique lever here: AI models are now able to solve problems in the same way a human would, and to conduct and maintain conversations across all points of contact.

What can a smart AI assistant do?

• In the future, the entire website navigation can be replaced by an "ultimate citizen advisor", which shortens the search process enormously by no longer sending users from A to B, but providing the most important information in a synthesized form.
• Online applications and processing would be massively simplified. Inquiries could be better pre-filtered, requests could be optimally prepared and public authority employees would have the necessary freedom to concentrate on cases requiring intensive consultation.

Even if laws and internal regulations still severely restrict the use of information, generative AI offers enormous automation potential for transactional processes. Especially in the area of citizen communication and the personalization of services for customers and employees, the transformation can pick up speed. In one of the biggest growth areas for the use of AI, the course has already been set.

Decision-makers in public administration need to take action now in order to bring a customer-centric AI strategy to citizens' offices in a timely manner and at the same time support them in dealing with the effects of the skills shortage. Collaboration with transformation partners in central lighthouse projects not only provides the speed, but also the expertise needed to redesign citizen services and administration.

The complete guest article by Kai Müller can be found in the 05/2023 issue of "Wissensmanagement - Das Magazin für Digitalisierung, Vernetzung und Collaboration".

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