With the investment in technology and personnel training we are currently seeing, 2020 will be a year of reckoning for digital transformation initiatives in the public sector. Here are the four technology predictions for the public sector in 2020.
Governments will look inwards as they approach citizen service modernization
Public sector organizations all over the world are recognizing the fundamental importance of the citizen experience — and devoting resources to making it better. However, while citizen experience remains vitally important, organizations will look inward to streamline and automate processes in an effort to continue redefining their service delivery efficiencies.
Developments such as intelligent automation and AI technology will change the way public sector work gets done. By shifting the focus from carrying out mundane, routine tasks to identifying and addressing high-value issues, public sector employees have the opportunity to create more value for constituents and enhance their professional satisfaction.
Governments will increasingly employ artificially intelligent solutions to minimize mundane, but essential, tasks
Intelligent technologies and the future of work will have far-reaching implications in 2020. Changing how public sector employees do their jobs on a daily basis is one of the biggest impacts that AI can have on an organization, and this will continue to grow in the coming year.
There has been a concerted effort within global governments to shift from low-value to high-value work. By taking over mundane tasks and bringing a more diverse set of cognitive processes to bear on a problem, these systems enable employees to focus on more programmatic, higher-value work.
AI also helps enhance employee capabilities. Systems can process massive amounts of content and data, enabling AI tools like OpenText™ Magellan™ to perform volume-driven activities that simply aren’t possible for people to handle.
And through the power of AI, public sector organizations can redesign work in ways that take advantage of the unique characteristics of both people and machines. Instead of merely automating tasks previously done by humans, the process can be redesigned so that AI takes over certain tasks and augments the work done by people.
By transforming the future of work, government organizations can not only capture efficiency gains through human-machine collaboration, but they can also find new paths to create value that may not have been possible before.
Organizations will use the cloud as a strategic advantage to deploy emerging technologies that will benefit their mission
Historically, one of the primary drivers for migrating to the cloud has been cost savings. However, one of the most important reasons to move to the cloud is to enable innovation to drive strategy and transformation. 2020 presents an exciting time for government leaders.
While the cloud isn’t new to most agencies, it’s often still used as a cost-cutting and efficiency measure. And while some departments have certainly started to use the cloud as a strategic advantage to benefit their missions, more agencies will begin to realize the cloud’s full potential in 2020.
One area this will be realized is in smart city projects across the globe. Today, there are numerous real-world examples of how cloud-enabled, connected cities are using data from social networks, mobile applications and IoT sensors to optimize energy efficiency, security, traffic, infrastructure, public safety, emergency response and more. And with Gartner forecasting the global public cloud services market to grow 17% in 2020, the growing cloud technology market will continue to drive innovation for the public sector in the smart city space.
AI will play an increasing role in cyber defense as the cybersecurity skills gap continues to grow
This cybersecurity skills gap is not a new problem and is only getting worse as demand increases. New research by ISC2 estimates that there are currently almost 3 million unfilled vacancies in the cybersecurity sector and that all regions of the world are affected. And unfortunately, we don’t see this cyber security skills gap lessening in the coming year. This deficit of skills is likely to become a growing matter of public concern during the early part of this new decade.
Enter AI. Public sector CIOs and CISOs are increasingly exploring artificially intelligent solutions to enhance cybersecurity. Benefits to this approach include gaining the ability to spot threats more quickly, saving time and money, and closing cybersecurity skills gaps through automation. However, despite the benefits that AI tools can deliver, skepticism remains for public sector leaders. AI for cybersecurity will continue to evolve. As it does, and as more global governments become familiar with how to use it and its benefits, expect to see an uptick in adoption across the world.
What’s next in Public Sector?
As we embark on the coming year, there is no doubt that emerging technologies will have a significant impact on the enterprise. These technologies will come with both unfathomable innovation and intricate connectivity, drawing the organizational responsibility of data security.
Analytics will see dramatic changes for public sector organizations in terms of service delivery. While this means more sophisticated citizen satisfaction and better mission outcomes, it also necessitates the need for solutions built for purpose with security in-mind.
To learn more about what OpenText is doing to support digital government transformations in 2020 and beyond, visit our website.
