New research by Public First, commissioned by Google Cloud, reveals the potential of generative AI to provide a once in a generation opportunity to boost productivity, improve working conditions and enable new innovations across the UK’s public sector.

Building on new modelling and a poll of 415 public administration workers, Public First estimates that greater use of generative AI could significantly offset current pressures in the public sector, creating up to £38 billion a year in annual savings by 2030.

This finding builds on a report last year, where we estimated that generative AI tools could create over £400 billion in value across all of the UK economy by 2030, the equivalent to an annual growth rate of 2.6%.

By facilitating more effective working practices and automating repetitive, bureaucratic tasks, generative AI could save enough time to allow for an extra 3.7 million GP appointments, a 16% increase in the teacher to student ratio, and freeing up the equivalent of over 160,000 police officers.

Conversely, if the UK cannot leverage generative AI to boost public sector productivity, which has not increased in over 25 years, the Treasury will have to find another £12 billion in revenue for the next fiscal year.

Getting this right is particularly important in tackling long-standing pressures on budgets, workloads and waiting times across public services. As it stands, three-fifths of public administration workers (61%) stated that overwork has increased in the last five years. Additionally, 70% say that employee morale has decreased. 

The research highlights that many public administration workers recognise the potential of AI tools but are still early on in the overall process of adoption. Two-thirds of public administration managers agreed that AI will change the way the public sector operates forever – but just 12% said that they had already significantly deployed AI tools.

In order to take full advantage of AI more broadly, the report finds that more will need to be done to overcome current constraints on data, skills and legal guidance:

• 55% of public administration managers agreed that they would need access to different or better structured datasets to fully take advantage of AI, compared to 16% who disagreed.
• 60% of public administration managers agreed that there were legal or regulatory barriers that would make them cautious about using AI tools more extensively.
• Only around a third (34%) of public administration managers were confident that their workforce had the right skills to take advantage of AI.

You can read the full report here.

Read more of our work on public attitudes and AI here.