Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1384247
OPINION 10.6.2021 Alexiei Dingli Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He forms part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world A few weeks ago, we celebrated Public Service Week. A period dedicated to all those people who every day provide us with a myriad of essential services. ese range from cleaning our towns or cities to sustaining our health infra- structure. All of them are important for a country to advance. eir work was particularly felt during the pandem- ic when these unsung heroes woke up daily, irrespective of their challenges, to keep the different aspects of our coun- try functioning. Just for this, they de- serve our gratitude. But the Public Service Week was not about reminiscing on the past. It was more about charting the future. e three main founding pillars upon which the transformation of public service lies are the people, services and technolo- gies. e Public Service exists to serve the citizens because they lie at the heart of any government. Officials need to help their clients get the best service and in the shortest time possible. Of course, one has to keep in mind the distribu- tion of people who interact with these departments every day—old, young, lit- erate, illiterate, foreigners, digital savvy, etc. e list is practically endless. at is why these departments are faced with a daunting task daily. is challenge leads us to the second pillar, the services. e government al- ready offers thousands of applications, some through offices and others online. But with any large organisation, when it starts growing, things tend to become unmanageable. Users cannot be knowl- edgeable about all the opportunities of- fered by their government, even if indi- vidual departments go to great lengths to inform their citizens. People need guidance to navigate through the maze of online applications, evaluate their el- igibility and eventually apply. Unfortu- nately, in some cases, the path is not so clear. ey only manage to find a service either by accident or through referrals from someone else. Furthermore, these departments in- teract with people with different expec- tations and needs, like digitally illiterate people who need assistance. But they also meet those people who migrated online with their house key, car key, driver's license, credit cards, and prac- tically most of their life stored in their mobile phone. e expectations of these people are high, and they cannot understand how some of the govern- ment services are still offline. at is where the last pillar comes into play since technology will be the corner- stone behind this new pact between the public service and its clients. e new systems developed will not only provide clients with a digital sugaring over ex- istent offline services. But the new ser- vices will offer many tangible benefits to clients. Let me give you some examples. In any large organisation, one tends to find legacy systems that have been in ex- istence for decades. It is hard to replace them due to the massive investment involved and the dependencies which they have. One solution would be to go for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). is technology makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage automated process- es that emulate humans actions. So im- agine you're applying for a license; even though the process remains the same, the fact that an RPA system is process- ing it makes it much faster and less er- ror-prone than if a human was doing it. Such a system will provide citizens with a superior service in a short period. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. A much more ambitious and important project is the Once-Only-Principle, an e-government concept that aims to ensure that citizens, institutions, and companies only provide standard infor- mation once. Visiting a department and repeating the same information that government already possesses will be a thing of the past. Undoubtedly, the apex of all these transformations will arrive when Ar- tificial Intelligence (AI) enhances gov- ernment services. Imagine your marital status changes. Rather than scratching your head trying to figure out where to start, the main public service app pro- vides you with relevant information and suggestions. It is conscious of your change and informs you that you need to inform various departments. But it goes even further. By just clicking a but- ton, it will submit all the information required on your behalf. It also suggests new benefits for which you became el- igible. Once again, rather than filling endless forms, the app requests your permission to apply on your behalf. Just click a button, and you're good to go. e benefits envisioned are rather impressive; they will change the public service forever and place it at par with what one expects from private com- panies. Of course, one might question the perils of such a system, especially regarding privacy concerns. Howev- er, a phrase that features quite a lot in this transformation is the "ethical use of technology". e reason is simple. e first pillar in this digital transformation is the citizen. If we want citizens to use these systems, the public service has to gain their trust, and it can only earn it by committing itself to make ethical use of their data. With this vision in place, the future of public service is looking bright. As in any transformation, there will be many challenges. But the people working in the public service have the citizen at heart, and I'm sure that they will over- come all the difficulties they will be facing. In the end, I firmly believe that the public service will be stronger and better. Citizens will be satisfied with high-quality services and technologies that will change their lives for the better. Revolutionising our public service