AI's Potential to Enhance UK Public Services with Strong Oversight, Experts Caution

AI is already influencing public services at council chatbots, GP systems, and hospitals. Artificial intelligence could transform public services in the UK for the better — but it also risks damaging public trust if not introduced responsibly, experts have warned.

A new report published by the universities of Southampton and Cambridge, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, has outlined the growing role of AI in services like healthcare, local government, and justice. It also looks at how the technology might be harnessed to improve quality of life.

AI is already influencing public service delivery, including council chatbots, GP appointment systems, and hospital triage tools. But the report warns that without robust regulation, public oversight, and investment in digital skills, AI adoption could lead to job losses, increase inequality, and hand control to unaccountable tech giants.

Co-author Dame Wendy Hall, a Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and member of the UN’s high-level advisory body on AI, emphasized the need for intentional design of AI systems in the public interest to ensure fair and effective outcomes.

The report identifies gaps in current research and how AI could help deliver more joined-up public services in areas such as administrative justice, local government, public health, and regulation and markets.

Findings from the report, titled Just outcomes: How can AI make people's lives better?, were drawn from workshops involving leaders from healthcare, law, policy, and academia. Authors highlighted the importance of prioritizing fairness, transparency, and public value in the use of AI to improve public services.

According to the source: University of Southampton.