When generative AI first made waves with the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, one major concern that arose within the Federal government and beyond was the idea that the tool would steal people’s jobs.
Something akin to the opposite of that trend emerged today at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where experts testified that in order for the Federal government to fully reap the benefits of AI to improve customer experience (CX), it must first beef up the portions of the workforce that work with the technology.
Jennifer Pahlka, former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer during the Obama administration and founder of Code for America, told committee members that that capacity and competency are critical elements for the Federal government to deploy AI thoughtfully.
“There are really two ways to build capacity: having more of the right people doing the right things,” she said, “and safely reducing the burdens we place on those people.”
“AI, of course, could help reduce those burdens, but not without the workforce we need – one that understands the systems we have today, the policy goals we have set, and the technology we are bringing to bear to achieve those goals,” Pahlka said.
“Our biggest priority as a government should be building that capacity, working both sides of that equation – more people, less burden,” she said.
Following President Biden’s recent AI executive order, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has authorized a government-wide direct hire authority for AI positions in an effort to help with the AI hiring surge.
“That will remove a bit of the red tape agencies need to bring on experts,” Pahlka said, “but that direct hire authority does not allow for the use of pooled hiring across agencies, despite the fact that pooled hiring has gotten us many excellent data scientists and other tech roles much more quickly.”
“Agencies will have to run a separate hiring action for each open position, which will take enormous amounts of time and paperwork, even with the direct hire authority,” she added.
Beth Simone Noveck, the chief innovation officer for the state of New Jersey, said that AI should serve as a “co-pilot” for government employees. Specifically, she highlighted that her CX shop has begun to leverage chatbots to improve customer delivery and reduce employee burden.
“We are using generative artificial intelligence to make it easier for residents to get answers to their questions,” Noveck said. “We have moved many call centers to platforms that support AI-based text-to-speech. This means call center staff can write and publish menu options and messages in multiple languages very quickly, giving the public access to more self-help options.”
“In just the first three months, 15 percent of those calling in to ask questions about the state’s property tax relief program are resolving their issues successfully through self-serve tools, including web- and phone-based chatbots,” she said. “The small initial decrease in call volume translates into a 50 percent increase in the resolution of calls by human operators.”
Associate Vice Provost for Public Sector Innovation at Johns Hopkins University, Beth Blauer, noted that “the most effective implementation of AI is actually not felt at all by the public.”
AI, she said, should be “working in the background to optimize an experience that’s lead” by the government workforce. The tool will then in turn free the workforce of “bureaucratic processes that have been labored by regulations.”
Blauer continued, “When we can skim those processes down and free up the public sector workforce to actually focus on creating those meaningful service delivery opportunities, that’s when we’re going to see the combination of the power of AI and the ability for us to provide very responsible and very satisfying customer experiences.”
