Credit: Dreamstime
Partners utilising artificial intelligence (AI) face an uphill battle to have their work valued by government organisations' employees amid a global sense of hesitancy towards the technology by the sector.
According to Gartner's 2021 Gartner Employee Technology Survey, only 34 per cent of government employees located around the world that have not worked with AI solutions believe the technology can provide insights to do their job better.
This is opposed to employees that have worked with AI, with 53 per cent of this group viewing it as beneficial to their job.
“Automation, insight and intelligence are all interconnected priorities for government leaders,” said Dean Lacheca, senior research director at Gartner.
“The operational and services delivery workforce is absolutely critical to the success of any attempts to automate or augment their ways of working. Leaders can generate more acceptance by clearly linking the technology to practical outcomes that benefit government employees and support mission objectives.”
Additionally, 42 per cent of surveyed employees that have not worked with AI consider the technology as a means of getting work done, but when narrowing the focus of the work, this figure drops off.
Of the respondents, 27 per cent see AI as having the potential to replace many tasks. This drops further to 17 per cent when considering skilled tasks.
There are even signs of hesitancy among those that have previously used AI, with 31 per cent of employees believing the technology is a threat to their jobs, as opposed to those who haven’t worked with it, which sits at 24 per cent.
“Senior executives in the public sector must address the early apprehension among the government workforce by showing how the technology helps them to get their work done,” Lacheca added. “Then continue to build confidence in the technology through exposure, use cases and case studies.”
