How Government Can Successfully Scale AI
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s lips in government circles right now. The drive to do anything with AI is palpable, fuelled by the perception that it's a silver bullet that will slash inefficiencies and drive productivity.
Yet, despite the enthusiasm and ambition, many civil servants grapple with 'where' to start and 'how' it can deliver real value. Organisations are understandably eager to harness AI’s potential.
But the transition from vision to reality is fraught with barriers.These include having access to the right skills in the organisation, gaining stakeholder alignment, and ensuring the data infrastructure is fit for AI implementation.
How to get AI projects off the ground
In a recent webinar, digital leaders from the Border Force, HM Revenue & Customs, Government Internal Audit Agency, shared practical advice on how to get AI projects off the ground.
Zaizi spoke about our project with Border Force. We helped the organisation modernise its port scanning operations by digitising and automating workflows and eliminating manual processes.
The award-winning ScanApp solution facilitated data sharing and informed decision-making but also crucially provided the essential data foundation required to explore and integrate AI.
Doing AI right: Lessons from Border Force
Faced with the growing complexity of managing the flow of people and goods across UK borders, Border Force wanted to improve efficiencies and reduce the risks associated with manual work. Now that it had valuable data to develop predictive modes, AI could improve operations further. They set an ambitious challenge for us: deliver a proof of concept in just 12 weeks.
We worked on the pilot project, using AI and computer vision anomaly detection to automate cargo processing. The pilot project yielded impressive results in an operational context, allowing Border Force to gather more data and progressively enhance the models.
It shows that an iterative development method, focused on refinement and practical testing can move pilot projects into full-scale deployment. But it also showed the importance of having the right data foundations in the first place, which meant dealing with siloed, legacy and manual processes.
So, what are the key steps for scaling AI Impact?
Based on our work with national security organisations, here's a breakdown of some steps we can take with government organisations to succeed and scale with AI.
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Ensure proper digital foundations are in place to support your specific AI objectives.
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Define how data will be acquired, managed, shared.
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Start small with targeted AI use cases that can deliver immediate value.
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Integrate proven AI tech into existing workflows.
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Develop proof-of-concepts to showcase tangible benefits and build confidence amongst stakeholders.
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Create a scalable roadmap to strategically expand AI capabilities across your organisation.
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Identify and modernise additional legacy systems as needed to support your AI drive.
techUK - Seizing the AI Opportunity
For the UK to fully seize the AI opportunity, citizens and businesses must have trust and confidence in AI. techUK and our members champion the development of reliable and safe AI systems that align with the UK’s ethical principles.
AI assurance is central to this mission. Our members engage directly with policy makers, regulators, and industry leaders to influence policy and standards on AI safety and ethics, contributing to a responsible innovation environment. Through these efforts, we help build public trust in AI adoption whilst ensuring our members stay ahead of regulatory developments.
Get involved: techUK runs a busy calendar of activities including events, reports, and insights to demonstrate some of the most significant AI opportunities for the UK. Our AI Hub is where you will find details of all upcoming activity. We also send a monthly AI newsletter which you can subscribe to here.
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Tess Buckley
Tess Buckley
A digital ethicist and musician, Tess holds a MA in AI and Philosophy, specialising in ableism in biotechnologies. Their professional journey includes working as an AI Ethics Analyst with a dataset on corporate digital responsibility, followed by supporting the development of a specialised model for sustainability disclosure requests. Currently at techUK as programme manager in digital ethics and AI safety, Tess focuses on demystifying and operationalising ethics through assurance mechanisms and standards. Their primary research interests encompass AI music systems, AI fluency, and technology created by and for differently abled individuals. Their overarching goal is to apply philosophical principles to make emerging technologies both explainable and ethical.
Outside of work Tess enjoys kickboxing, ballet, crochet and jazz music.
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Chad Bond
An accomplished digital leader, educated from BSc and MBA level, accredited to CMgr and MCMI standards, experienced in driving digital and technology strategy, service delivery, auditing processes, and transformation initiatives within the Government Relations and Law Enforcement sectors.