AI ‘mantra’ to drive UK government ‘digitalisation’

The pledge was outlined in a new mantra that the government has committed to, which is to shape its approach to the overhaul of how public services and the wider British state operates using digital technologies.

The mantra is that “no person’s substantive time should be spent on a task where digital or AI can do it better, quicker and to the same high quality and standard”.

The mantra was announced to coincide with a speech given by Starmer and the publication of the findings and recommendations from a performance review of digital spend by government, which the chief secretary to the Treasury commissioned last August.

Starmer said: “We don’t want bigger state, or an intrusive state, an ever-expanding state. A state that demands more and more from people as it fails to deliver on core purposes. So, we’ve got to change things.”

“The good news is technology can massively help. If we push forward with digital reform of government – and we are going to do that, we can make massive savings, £45 billion savings in efficiency. AI is a golden opportunity. You will already be thinking about how you use it in your work. That’s an opportunity we are determined to seize, so we are going to get the best of best on AI working across government. I’m going to send teams into every government department with a clear mission from me to make the state more innovative and efficient,” he said.

Among other things, the review found that financial pressures arising during and between government spending reviews “often mean short-term savings are prioritised over long-term digital investments and spending on service maintenance is often deprioritised”. The review team said that “this results in mounting technical debt with outdated legacy systems and hampers progress”.

The review team concluded: “A paradigm shift in how [the government] allocates and funds digital programmes is needed to ensure that it can enable better strategic investments in areas where long-term benefits are uncertain and more speculative, but the benefits are potentially large. This would enable departments to drive efficiency and productivity through digital service transformation.”

Specific concerns were flagged about the complexities involved in government digital programmes and about how the detail required to demonstrate a business case for digital, data, and technology (DDaT) projects “can often be too onerous or, in the worst cases, completely prohibitive”. Further issues identified included lack of funding for the running and continuous improvement of digital services and the lack of agreed metrics for tracking outcomes.

In its report, the government highlighted examples of successful public and private sector digital transformation initiatives, including from the US, Australia and Estonia. In one example, the government highlighted how transformation of its IT services and funding processes enabled Lloyds Banking Group to make “significant cultural and operational shifts, including faster delivery, better alignment with strategy, and improved cost and risk visibility” and ultimately helped the bank to become the UK's largest digital bank, achieve significant cost savings, and improve customer satisfaction.

Included in the review team’s recommendations is a shift away from risk-averse and burdensome funding approval processes to a “faster, smarter, and more proportionate” system for obtaining funding.

Four different funding models are to be introduced, tested and refined. Those models, the government said, would “allow funding decisions to be iterative, responsive, and informed by ongoing delivery insights, ensuring flexibility and pace without compromising accountability”.

In tandem with this, department officials are to be given enhanced training and guidance to enable “more strategic spending”, while improvements to “outcomes metrics and evaluation” are also planned to allow the success of digital spending to be better measured and lessons learned and applied for future digital initiatives.

Simon Colvin of Pinsent Masons, a specialist in supporting organisations with digital transformation projects, said: “It is great to see the recognition of need for change in how government adopts and uses technology. With the report recommending a ‘digital first’ approach to decisions in the next spending review, it is hoped the short-term nature of digital strategies can be left behind.”

“With greater injection of tech and AI expertise from the private sector, we should expect to see a marked change in the prioritisation of technology and AI strategies. As with all other sectors, the challenge will come in repurposing civil servants’ roles from roles that can be performed by AI. However, with the increased pressure from Treasury, the adoption of tech and AI should enable civil servants to focus on driving policy and on allowing tech to provide a platform to facilitate that,” he added.