New analysis finds using AI to change the way government delivers could save £200 billion over five years.
Tony Blair and Faculty AI CEO Dr Marc Warner: “AI can save our public services”.
Next government should commit to a “hundred-day plan” – a framework to scale AI public-service solutions including a Digital Public Assistant for every citizen and a National Policy Twin to cut planning times.
New analysis from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) and Faculty AI estimates that the government could save up to £200 billion over five years if it properly embraces AI.
In Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State, authors Alexander Iosad and Tom Westgarth of TBI, and David Railton of Faculty find that, over time, technology will accelerate dramatically in capability, leading to increases in savings.
The paper, released ahead of TBI’s annual Future of Britain conference on 9 July, details how putting AI strategy and specific AI tools at the heart of government will transform the way public services are delivered.
In their joint foreword to the report, Tony Blair and Faculty CEO, Dr Marc Warner, write that AI “should make today the most exciting and creative time to govern”.
They say:
“In writing this paper, we are coming at this issue from both perspectives. One of us is a politician and runs an Institute advising government leaders, while the other is a leader of a technology company. We both understand the magnitude and the necessity of the choice. We both also see the potential prize for the UK, which should have its own ambitions to position itself at the forefront on AI and provide leadership on governing in this new era. And when both of us survey the operations of governments from our different perspectives, we see the same opportunity: almost everywhere AI can help us reimagine the state. Many of the countless daily tasks in government are repeatable processes carried out on a mass scale.
“Almost all of these can be made better, faster and cheaper. As this paper lays out, the scale of this opportunity is huge: with the technologies and the digital infrastructure we have today, we estimate that up to £40 billion can be saved each year with the technology as it exists now. But, of course, over time, this technology will accelerate dramatically in its capability, and so will the savings.
“At a time when government is unwieldy, expensive and slow, AI can save our public services, making them more personalised and human-centric.
“The prospect might seem daunting, but for the most part investing in AI is low-risk, high-reward. Its benefits, as this paper shows, far exceed the costs – and the price of inaction may be higher still.”
The paper’s authors say the government should commit to a “hundred-day plan” for scaling AI in public services. This includes creating the conditions for three new applications of AI to enable this transformation of government operations:
A personalised Digital Public Assistant that recommends eligible services, simplifies applications and payments, and provides informed advice to government based on input from citizens.
A Multidisciplinary AI Support Team (MAST) to streamline civil servants’ workflows, cut repetitive administrative tasks and free them up to work on tasks that need their skill and dedication.
A National Policy Twin which can run complex policy scenarios to show long-term outcomes and cut planning times from months to days.
Further information
Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State is published as part of TBI’s Future of Britain initiative. The series sets out a policy agenda for a new era of invention and innovation, focusing on how to deliver radical-yet-practical solutions – concrete plans to reimagine the state for the 21st century – with technology as the driving force.