Artificial Intelligence (AI) could take over 84 per cent of repetitive government services, a new study has said. Researchers from The Alan Turing Institute focussed on 201 services in the UK that involve a decision and an exchange of information between government and a citizen and found that these can be automated to save time. Some examples are processing passports and registering to vote, which have the potential to be automated. Every minute AI helped cut per transaction would save hundreds of thousands of hours of manual work by human staff, said the study.
Automation will also free-up officials from never-ending bureaucracy and spend more time dealing with the public.
"AI has enormous potential to help governments become more responsive, efficient and fair. Even if AI could save one minute per transaction, that would be the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of hours of labour saved each year," Dr Jonathan Bright, head of AI for public services and online safety at The Alan Turing Institute, said about the study.
"Achieving responsible and accurate automation with AI will require a lot of work, however the huge benefit justifies the investment needed," he added.
The study was focussed on the UK government's work and found that services with a potential to automate consisted of around 143 million complex but repetitive transactions.
"Overall, our work presents a novel perspective on the structure and functioning of modern government, and how it might evolve in the age of artificial intelligence, the researchers said in the study.
In January, International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva had said that AI poses risks to job security around the world but also offers a "tremendous opportunity" to boost flagging productivity levels and fuel global growth.
Ms Georgieva had also said that AI will affect 60 percent of jobs in advanced economies.
