How AI can help in the public sector
"Govtech - Artificial Intelligence in the Public Sector" was the title of an event held by the Artificial Intelligence Center Hamburg (ARIC) together with the business law firm Fieldfisher. All participants agreed that artificial intelligence (AI) will be indispensable in managing administrative tasks in the future. Collaboration with startups can play an important role in its implementation.
AI can solve the problem of job vacancies
In the next ten years, 20% of public sector employees will retire, and in the next 20 years, even as many as 54%. There are already more than 300,000 unfilled positions in the administration and with the demographic development in Germany, the situation will get even worse. With these figures, Dennis Hillemann from the law firm Fieldfisher made it clear why the state needs AI. At the same time, he was optimistic and explained that the state is allowed - meaning the legal framework - to use AI and also wants to.
Estonia is considered a leader in the digitization of the administration. For example, there has been an electronic ID card there for more than 20 years. However, the Baltic state can only serve as a model for Germany to a limited extent, since Estonia was able to completely rebuild its administration after breaking away from the Soviet Union, whereas in this country, structures and legal foundations that have existed for many decades must be taken into account. Therefore, digitization - with or without AI - should not be an end in itself, but must simplify and improve existing processes.
One challenge here is to place the change on a broad basis and to involve as many people and institutions as possible from the outset. During the event, the term "vision document" was mentioned, in which the common objectives could be defined. As far as the legal basis is concerned, it remains to be seen what the EU will lay down in its "AI Act". This legislative process has yet to be approved by the committees of the European Parliament and will include the regulation of AI. The process is also ongoing because artificial intelligence has been developing rapidly, especially recently, as the much-discussed example of ChatGPT shows.
GovTecHH connects startups and administrations
An important role will therefore be played by further training and education about the opportunities offered by AI. Paulo Kalkhake, project manager of GovTecHH, is convinced of this. As a project of the Senate Chancellery of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, GovTecHH sees itself as Hamburg's first point of contact for startups offering solutions for the public sector. There are about 300 of them in Germany. GovTecHH networks solution providers and Hamburg's administration and accompanies cooperation processes, from needs assessment to legally compliant awarding.
Over 500 ideas and requirements have been recorded or consolidated to date, and around 40 initial discussions have been held with specialized authorities, state companies and districts. Three collaborations with startups are already running successfully, and others are in the process of being initiated. As an example, Paulo Kalkhake mentioned an AI developed by the startup SUMM AI, which translates publications on the city portal hamburg.de into plain language. As a result, this means a greater range of accessible content for citizens while reducing the cost per standard page.
If you would like to learn more about GovTecHH or if your startup offers a solution for the public sector, please feel free to email to startups@sk.hamburg.de.
