The government's ambition to boost efficiency by embedding AI in all aspects of its work risks being undermined by out-of-date technology, poor quality data and a lack of skilled staff, an influential Commons committee has warned. The report by the cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) found that more than 20 government IT systems identified as "legacy", meaning out of date and unsupported, have yet to be given funding to improve them. Government research cited by the PAC in the report found that almost a third of central government IT systems met this definition in 2024. Keir Starmer's government has repeatedly stressed its desire to increase economic growth through the mass take-up of AI systems, including in the public sector. An official plan for the technology published in January called for the government to "rapidly pilot" AI-powered services, saying this would both increase productivity and improve people's experience of dealing with officialdom.

In 2019, a survey from the Center for Digital Government (CDG),* the National Association of Chief Information Officers and IBM found that just 13 percent of state governments reported using artificial intelligence in some noncore part of their operations. Three years later, the same survey yielded very different results. At the NASCIO Annual conference in Seattle this week, Joe Morris with CDG presented some of the study's 2021 findings, and it was clear that the COVID-19 pandemic changed how state and local government are thinking about AI. This year, 60 percent of respondents reported AI is currently in use in their enterprise; 6.7 percent said the tech is widely used across the state, up from just 1 percent in 2019. The shift seems to have come in part from the spike in demand for government services in 2020 when the pandemic hit and states scrambled to find new ways to meet the high volume of citizen needs.

Tahera Zamanzada, director of digital strategy for the global public sector at Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), said the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted government agencies to advance digital transformation and deliver better customer service through the adoption of cloud platforms. "The digital customer experience in government benefits tremendously from cloud technology because it supports mobile solutions in ways that otherwise would not exist and leads to much higher adoption rates plus happier customers," Zamanzada wrote. "Cloud can also handle the fluctuating bandwidth of demands so that agencies can scale up or scale down as needed." She noted that agencies should work to provide citizens with an omnichannel experience to facilitate communications and interaction with the government and use artificial intelligence platforms to gain deeper understanding of their customers in order to better meet their needs. "They can use those insights to create human-centered design frameworks as part of their digital transformation plans while they continue to fine-tune their business processes and home in on mission effectiveness," Zamanzada added.

This year, NASCIO and the Center for Digital Government, with support from IBM, set out to understand state CIOs' motivations, plans and deterrents around AI adoption. The survey, Delivering on Digital Government: Achieving the Promise of Artificial Intelligence, yielded responses from 45 states. The results reflect state leaders' eagerness to gain efficiencies and free up their workforces for higher-value work, tempered by caution due to concerns around lack of data maturity and privacy policies, as well as a dearth of employees with the necessary skills for AI adoption.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the first country in the world to appoint a State Minister for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The UAE is embracing AI in society at the governmental level, which is leading to a new generations of digital government (which we are labeling Gov. 3.0). This paper argues that the decision to embrace AI will lead to positive impacts on society, including businesses, organizations and individuals, as well as on the AI industry itself. This paper discusses the societal impacts of AI at a macro (country-wide) level. This article is part of the special track on AI and Society.

The Cabinet has adopted the formation of the'UAE Council for Artificial Intelligence' to ensure the implementation of these technologies in various sectors. The move aims to serve the UAE Government's objectives, and improve the quality of life of citizens and residents in order to achieve the vision of the UAE 2021 and make the UAE one of the best countries in the world by 2071. The council's formation is a reaffirmation of the UAE Government's keenness to move forward in the use of artificial intelligence and its applications in various fields to improve government performance and create innovative work environments to accelerate the development projects. The formation of the council follows the appointment of a Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence in the recent formation of the UAE Cabinet, the launch of the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence and the UAE Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The council will study and identify the government sectors where artificial intelligence technology can be incorporated and make recommendations for the development of related infrastructure, in addition to the integration of artificial intelligence in different stages of education.