November 16, 2017/0 Comments/by Bright Apps LLC
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized how we work, how we research, and how we interact with businesses. It should come as no surprise that AI is making its way into the government as well. Government workers spend hours performing simple and repetitive tasks that, while necessary, consume time that could be spent on projects that are more important. By automating these tasks, the federal government could save 96.6 million hours and $3.3 billion—and that is just the low end of the spectrum. At the high end, AI could save 1.2 billion hours and $41.1 billion.
AI can help government workers balance their workload in a variety of ways, whether the tasks are fully automated, split between machines and humans, or augmenting how humans perform tasks. For example, fraud prevention is a major undertaking that requires hours of dedication. A machine can compare data from previous fraudulent cases to predict fraud, identify criminals via facial recognition, and comb through millions of documents and draw conclusions much faster than a human can. A machine is less prone to error as well as it does not get fatigued like a human does.
In essence, AI provides the government with several innovative options on how to get work done. Below are several ways AI can help enhance government productivity to save time and money.
Resolving Government Backlogs
The government is not known for its efficiency, and that is in large part due to backlogs. For example, by the end of 2016, the Social Security Administration expected to have more than one million pending cases. Compounding the issue is the fact that 22,000 employees will retire by 2022. Because of this labor gap, it can take years for government agencies to address issues happening today.
By automating the backlog process, the government can resolve these cases much faster. While many cases will be too complex for a machine to handle, machines could process thousands of more routine ones. This will free up government employees’ time to tackle the more difficult cases while machines close out easier ones, thus expediting the entire process.
Reducing Energy and Labor Costs with Real-Time AI
AI opens up the ability to provide real-time government services as well as make them operate smarter. For example, smart streetlights can activate or shut down depending on if a person is nearby or not. This can help save on electricity costs since the lights will not be running from dusk until dawn. Another example or real-time AI is smart parking meters. Los Angeles implemented smart meters that can notify residents when their parking is about to expire as well as let them know of available parking spaces.
Improving Cybersecurity
Cyber threats are constantly changing, often outpacing existing cybersecurity efforts. Because of this, IT experts must spend countless hours manually checking the security system for breaches, viruses, and more. Moreover, most cyber terrorists automate their attacks anyway, making it almost impossible to keep up with by hand. Since many security tasks are routine, automating them could allow IT employees to focus on developing sturdier defenses rather than only maintaining existing ones.
Tackling the Paperwork Mountain
Over half of government employees struggle to complete their work in a standard 40-hour workweek due to paperwork. In some instances, government workers spend over one-third of their time on paperwork. In fact, statistics show documenting information takes up half a billion hours annually. This adds up to $16 billion in wages. To obtain and process that data takes 280 million hours and costs an additional $15 billion per year. Artificial Intelligence could handle almost all of those duties as filing, sorting, and processing paperwork are rote tasks.
AI Proving Itself in the Legal Sector
AI has already proven it has the power to achieve all of the above and more. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported their learning machine has saved them over 360,000 hours annually. The program achieves this by interpreting commercial loan agreements. Prior to installing the software, lawyers and loan officers would have to perform this tedious task by hand. Unlike humans, machines are not prone to fatigue, boredom, and the resulting errors that go along with it.
These are just some of the ways AI applications can boost government efficiency to save time and money. Be letting machines take on menial tasks, government workers can get back to their primary job—running the country. To learn more about how AI can help reduce labor costs and boost productivity, contact the experts at Bright Apps.
