Why introducing AI doesn’t have to mean introducing public engagement risks
The trick is finding the right balance
For government service providers, enhancing or even maintaining public engagement levels is increasingly challenging in an era of staffing shortages and tightening purse strings.
Historically, meaningful service changes required heavy technology investment. The IT department tended to approach this investment with a lift-and-shift mentality, without accounting for the change management and process optimization needed to ensure smoother adoption and more meaningful change. This approach could disrupt government operations for months or perhaps even years.
AI is now changing this equation — making maintenance or even improvement a realistic aspiration, even when other resources are scarce. The versatility and flexibility of modern AI tools make it easier than ever to implement time-saving automation that fits into existing tech stacks and workflows. Now, all it takes to start a service transformation is a little empathy for the people we serve, an understanding of what AI can do, and a sound strategy to determine the right cost-benefit balance for their organization.
What is the current state of AI adoption in the public sector?
Although there’s an “everybody’s using it” mystique about AI, a Gallup poll tells a more nuanced story, with some two-thirds of employees saying they never use AI in their job. Of those who do use AI, less than half say it has improved their productivity and efficiency.
Gallup also revealed a disconnect between AI initiatives and workers: even when major AI initiatives are in the works, only 30% of workers in the organization are even aware of it.
The lesson? It’s clear that many organizations are still working out the best way to integrate AI into their workflows. Effective implementation of AI and automation requires leadership, a well-articulated plan, and awareness of AI initiatives in the workforce. In public engagement particularly, everyone in the organization needs to be involved.
Why looking upstream improves public sector AI strategy
Public service transformation means rethinking how people interact with government services — whether they are taxpayers filing returns, applicants seeking benefits, respondents completing census forms, or claimants tracking status. It requires identifying pain points in those interactions and using technology to proactively address them. To achieve meaningful cost savings while simultaneously improving satisfaction, agencies must look upstream in the interaction process, including all customer touchpoints from the web to contact centers and in-person office visits.
Public sector services can jump-start their AI journey by adopting a public-first mindset, putting themselves in the shoes of the people they serve — from students and borrowers to disaster survivors — and asking: What would make my experience easier and more seamless? Which transactions are most tedious, labor-intensive, and repetitive? Which workflows have repeated transactions that might be automated? Which KPIs are off the charts in the contact center and elsewhere?
By mapping journeys across significant touchpoints, managers can identify the costliest transactions — labor-wise, budget-wise, and engagement-wise — and strike the optimal balance between cost and public trust.
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What public sector tasks can generative AI automate best?
Too many interactions between agencies and the public are rife with inefficiencies, forcing individuals to endure multiple, siloed form-filling processes, often requiring them to provide the same information multiple times, which is both time-consuming and frustrating.
While AI and automation cannot completely eliminate government staffing shortages, they can reduce manual and repetitive tasks — freeing up current staff to focus on higher-value tasks that require human expertise, such as complex case management or direct assistance for callers facing difficult life events.
Agencies can start by addressing low-complexity, repetitive tasks upstream. By automating processes like appointment scheduling, form submissions, and automated notifications, agencies can operate more efficiently with fewer staff members.
Here are a few examples of tasks that generative AI can perform as well or better than humans:
- Streamlining access to information: Just finding information is time-consuming for workers and callers alike. AI can answer questions through a chat conversation or be “trained” on electronic documents to answer specific policy and procedure questions in detail.
- Handling common transactions: AI-powered chatbots can also handle simple inquiries faster — such as tracking the status of a permit, checking a refund, or renewing a driver's license — without the need for human involvement.
- Orchestrating communication: With the ability to understand text in documents, emails, and databases, AI can intelligently triage messages and get them to the right department, craft intelligent replies, or escalate urgent issues to live representatives.
- “Found” AI: AI implementation can sometimes be found in systems already in use. As OEMs and SaaS developers rush to implement the latest AI in their existing platforms, agencies may already own solutions like help-desk, contact center, or knowledge management platforms that offer off-the-shelf options for intelligent routing and smart automations.
- Measuring success with feedback: AI itself can aggregate text emails, web feedback, and inbound context to determine sentiment, aggregating customer feedback to measure the effectiveness of your AI strategy.
- Proactive public outreach: Another win-win comes from automating proactive outreach. Whether reminding drivers to renew their licenses, notifying Medicaid recipients of re-enrollment deadlines, or messaging taxpayers about key dates, proactive outreach prevents small issues from escalating into costly contact center spikes.
This type of upstream intervention is not only more efficient, but it can help ensure that the public remains informed, reducing the likelihood of more costly interventions later.
AI + human empathy = long-term public trust
For true public service transformation with tangible cost benefits, agencies must look upstream to have the most impact — both on cost to serve and public trust. While automating simple tasks offers a quick win, the long-term benefits of AI and automation come from reimagining how individuals interact with government services and using technology to streamline those processes.
State, local, and federal agencies operate in a environment where the public—whether acting as taxpayers, petitioners, or applicants—must engage with them. Improving public engagement and building trust transforms these necessary interactions into ones that are efficient, engaging, and beneficial for the community.
Deeper understanding = deeper results
See how TTEC Digital's process mapping exercises can help you better understand existing challenges before addressing them with digital transformation.
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Kelley focuses on crafting successful customer experience programs for state, local, and county government agencies, specializing in ground-to-cloud migrations.
