Driving strategic value with intelligent automation in the public sector

A survey of the UK public sector reveals insights for the Australian Government on intelligent automation.

The Australian Government, like those the world over, is facing greater pressure on public services brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. EY conducted a survey of the UK public sector's attitudes towards automation in 2019 before the crisis hit, but its findings are perhaps even more relevant now. Surveying more than 1,300 government and public sector employees across the UK, the report below gives a more in-depth understanding of where public sector organisations are currently on their automation journey, and clarity as to the benefits and the obstacles to adoption. Australia is in an ideal position to take these learnings and be at the forefront of driving strategic value with intelligent automation in the public sector now.

The findings indicate that the main benefits of intelligent automation include:

• Greater efficiency and productivity – automating high-volume tasks and manual processes can help public sector organisations do more with the same resources.

• Better citizen experience – automation can help organisations design and deliver more customer-centric services by enabling end-to-end digitization.

• Increased employee satisfaction – automation frees up employee time, enabling them to focus on more purposeful roles and increase human connections.

• Smarter decision-making – automation technologies can sift through huge volumes of data to extract insights that help improve human decision-making.

These benefits dovetail neatly with the top three challenges cited by the UK public sector survey respondents: operating within budget, meeting increasing demand for services and improving delivery.