Aims
This project aimed to understand the maturity and readiness for automation and AI across the Welsh public sector and use that information to further develop support activities in this area, based on user needs.
What we are trying to achieve
Automation and AI are powerful tools that, when used correctly, can make digital public services more accurate, simpler, faster, and cheaper. However, these tools also carry risks, such as risk of bias, lack of transparency and tech insecurity.
Our role is to support organisations to design and improve digital public services, aligned to the Digital Service Standards for Wales, and automation and AI are likely going to be areas that help achieve that.
We are already providing sector support through knowledge sharing webinars and have set up a standards working group to explore how we adopt AI related standards.
To provide further support, which is meaningful and of value, we needed a clearer understanding of the public sector’s existing automation and AI practices, processes and skills to shape what this looks like.
Partners
CDPS worked in partnership with the office of the Chief Digital Officer for Local Government and Welsh Government. We also spoke to market leaders in the automation and AI space to understand more about current technology and trends.
A summary of the work
We completed a 6-week discovery where we interviewed people working in the Welsh public sector to understand their maturity and readiness for automation and AI.
This helped us understand the support that is needed, based on evidence and the needs of our users.
We paid particular attention to common problem areas (where common solutions could be explored).
Next steps
A new public sector community will be the first step on a journey where automation and AI best practice and learning is created and shared.
We aim to launch this community in February 2024. More details will follow soon.
