10 minute read 5 Oct 2023
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How the public sector can prepare for AI in the workforce

Authors
Sean Jackson

Managing Director, Consulting, Ernst & Young LLP

Creative, collaborative and transformational technology leader.

Anthony Massa

Senior Consultant, Government and Public Sector, Ernst & Young LLP

Passionate about people and unlocking human potential. Lifelong learner, runner, traveler. Lover of good food, good music and great friends.

10 minute read 5 Oct 2023
Related topics Government and Public Sector
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Behind the AI “buzz,” thousands of organizations in both the public and private sector are moving quickly to understand AI technologies.

In brief

  • Agencies need to strike a balance between leveraging AI’s benefits, managing its risks and capitalizing on the opportunities it provides.
  • To effectively champion civil servants, government agencies must start by defining an “AI Civil Service Ambition”.
  • Agencies must invest now in developing an agile, resilient workforce and an institutional culture that values agility, resilience and continuous learning.

The conversation around artificial intelligence (AI) has been everywhere the past several months. Headlines about AI’s rapid evolution with the introduction of GPT4 have dominated the news, while videos showcasing the remarkable capabilities of ChatGPT, the generative AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, have gone viral across social media, answering complex queries in just a matter of seconds with shocking quality and accuracy.

Behind the AI “buzz,” thousands of organizations in both the public and private sector are moving quickly to understand these technologies, their potential uses and how to integrate them into their operations. According to IBM, 77% of companies are either currently using AI in their operations or exploring its use for future implementation.

And while AI promises to enhance customer and constituent experience, streamline processes, and increase speed to service, among other benefits, it also poses its share of risks. Chief among them is the threat of displacing potentially hundreds of millions of jobs as its capabilities advance to be able to perform key tasks faster and often with higher quality than humans. In the US alone, experts predict approximately 46% of the current workforce to be affected by AI-related disruptions by 2030, according to Forbes.

The future of AI in the workforce isn’t grim, however. AI’s entrance in the workforce, particularly in the public sector, presents a tremendous opportunity for organizations to employ talent in ways they never have before – by tapping into the uniquely human capabilities of their civil servants and utilizing employees in high-value ways. For organizations looking to implement AI into their operations, striking the balance between leveraging AI’s tremendous benefits, managing its risks and capitalizing on the opportunities it provides will be critical to successfully navigating the AI era.

To navigate the age of AI, government agencies around the world are acting now to understand AI and its impact on the public workforce. By understanding and actively preparing for AI in the workforce in the coming years, government agencies can choose to champion their civil servants by taking action such as building new career pathways for at-risk employees, implementing tailored upskilling programs aimed at building AI-resistant skill sets, and changing the recruitment criteria for new candidates.

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Defining your organization’s AI Civil Service Ambition

To effectively champion civil servants, government agencies must start by defining an “AI Civil Service Ambition” – a charter describing how they aspire to continue to support and develop their employees, while integrating AI into operations and utilizing its benefits. Organizations can do this by asking, who is my future civil servant, and how will AI change what that employee will be doing day to day in 10 years? What investments do I need to make in my workforce today to prepare for that future?

Developing a holistic AI Civil Service Ambition lays the groundwork for human-centered AI transformation by considering AI’s impacts across seven dimensions: workforce planning, organization design, employee journey and career pathing, competency and skill development, recruitment, compensation and rewards, and culture and DEIA. For each of these dimensions, understanding AI’s effect on the workforce and asking how to champion the contributions of civil servants in light of these effects can help clearly define an appropriate AI strategy for an agency’s workforce.

  • Workforce planning

    The first step to creating an informed workforce ambition for the age of AI is to understand how the agency’s workforce will change with the introduction of artificial intelligence into an increasing number of functions. As AI continues to take on more duties, such as copywriting, data input and even many legal functions including contract creation, conducting a thorough role analysis is critical and requires a different paradigm: Instead of thinking about people executing processes using data powered by technology, organizations need to think instead about how AI technology powered by data executing processes will be managed by people. Analyzing roles through this lens will help identify how roles will change, as AI technologies develop and help cut through the AI noise and chart a path forward for driving a human strategy in an AI world.

    Identifying those roles with tasks that will largely be automated over the course of the next decade, roles that are most likely to emerge during this time, and those roles are most uniquely human will help to paint a clear picture of how talent will shift in the organization and which investments are necessary to prepare for these shifts.

  • Organization design

    Equipped with an understanding of how roles and functions are likely to shift with the increased adoption of AI, government agencies should then take steps to rethink their organizational structures, job classifications and operating models to prepare for these shifts. Understanding which functions AI is likely to take on and how human reporting structures will need to change as a result will help to properly prepare employees for the anticipated changes. With the displacement of some roles and the emergence of others, agencies may need to reorganize to continue operating efficiently and effectively.

    While some restructuring may be needed sooner rather than later, it is critical that these structures remain adaptable and agile so they may be continually reassessed as circumstances require. This may require more frequent reorganizations within agencies, which in turn will involve a strong change management capability to assist employees in adjusting to more frequent changes in their roles and operating environments while developing increased organizational resilience in the face of disruption.

  • Employee journey and career pathing

    After developing an understanding of how roles will shift and how to revise organizational structures accordingly, organizations should engage with those employees who may be most “at risk” for job displacement and outline a career path to help them continue to thrive in the agency. Engaging with employees proactively and working with them to find experiences within the organization that interest and excite them will build trust and allow more employees the opportunity to develop the skills and experiences to play more strategic roles within the organization – roles that directly engage with the mission, help address the most complex challenges, and enhance the agency’s constituent impact.

    This could look like engaging with employees who currently serve as financial analysts (one of the jobs cited by Forbes as especially likely to be displaced by AI) to understand where their interests, talents and ambitions lie. Then, invest in training and development to support their move into new roles in new areas: planning, data science, procurement, process specification, orchestration and configuration, or something else entirely.

  • Competency and skill development

    For a career pathing effort to be successful, the organization must make an investment in providing the opportunity for employees to acquire the skills they will need to advance to new roles. Creating a culture of continuous learning within public organizations in the age of AI will be imperative as AI development will continue to accelerate the pace of change and rewrite the skills employees will need. The public sector should act now to develop robust training and education programs predicated to lifelong learning and the expectation that employees will be trained and retrained, perhaps several times throughout their careers, in the skills that will help them stay ahead of technological advancements.

    To help standardize and streamline skill development systemwide, governments could look to develop centralized “civil service academies.” Available to all public employees, these would be designed to help staff stay ahead of advancing technologies while achieving their career ambitions. States such as Rhode Island and Oklahoma have already established offices of this kind within their state governments, while the UK has developed a Civil Service Learning platform, aimed at providing a centralized learning system for all civil servants.

    For governments that develop such academies, the challenge to continually evaluate training needs and refresh content to remain “ahead of the curve” in providing the most relevant curriculum for evolving workforce needs will require clarity and attention. But it will also present an opportunity to use generative AI to identify these needs and develop training content.

  • Recruitment

    While investing in skill and career development will be critical for retaining the existing workforce, agencies will also need to rethink their approach to recruiting and the skills that their new civil servants will need. A robust workforce planning system, as described previously, will help to identify those roles in the organization as well as those emergent roles that are uniquely human and the skill sets necessary for an individual to be successful in these roles.

    Once talent needs are clearly identified, the search for qualified candidates will likely focus more heavily on the soft skills and traits needed to be successful. According to Forbes, these include skills such as creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence and interpersonal communication. While it is not possible to clearly predict the specific technical skills that will be needed in five, 10 or 20 years, these soft, uniquely human traits are highly likely to be crucial for employees to so they can continue to adapt as technologies advance. These skills, combined with strong training and development programs as described above, will serve to develop the most sustainable skill profiles for civil servants as AI evolves.

    In addition to adjusting expectations regarding potential candidates, recruiters should also look to refresh their employer branding to emphasize their investment in employees. Employees are already concerned about AI’s effects on their jobs, as highlighted by a recent Pew Research survey, which showed that 62% of workers believing that AI would have a “major effect” on the workforce in the coming years. Government employers who focus on the value of human contribution to achieve the agency’s mission – and who back this up with strong employee investment through learning and development, rewards and recognition, and a culture of continuous learning – will see themselves winning the battle for top talent, even against private sector employers.

  • Compensation and rewards

    As AI shapes and redefines the workforce and traditional roles, recognizing those uniquely human employee contributions and compensating employees in a way that emphasizes the value they provide will only grow in importance. Although some compensation decisions lie outside of individual agencies and may require legislative action, finding creative ways both monetary and nonmonetary, such as spot awards, wellness benefits or public recognition, to compensate employee contributions and reward new skill development will demonstrate the value an organization places on its civil servants.

    Additionally, while perhaps not as pronounced as in the private sector, AI in the workforce will drive cost savings for government agencies by increasing efficiency of key processes. While a share of these savings may go back into the pockets of taxpayers, finding opportunities for civil servants to share in these savings through compensation adjustments will help bolster the commitment to human-led value creation.

  • Culture and DEIA

    Government agencies can further bolster that commitment to human-led value creation by investing in their organization culture and DEIA strategy to showcase their commitment to the diverse population of people that make up these agencies. Finding ways to foster human connection even in the current reality of hybrid and remote work by cultivating “moments that matter” around key milestones and achievements, as well as giving all employees access to personal coaching and mentors, will help keep human experience front and center for employees.

    Considering the impact of AI-caused workforce disruptions through the lens of diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) will be important for enabling equitable workforce decisions that do not have disproportionate impact. It is important to recognize that certain employee populations may be more vulnerable to AI-related job displacement due to the nature of their roles, and these same groups may have not had the same access to opportunities for developing their skills. Providing equal access for all employees to learning, mentorship and career pathing programs will help prevent employees from getting left behind as AI drives workforce shifts.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ernst & Young LLP or other members of the global EY organization.

Summary

Relentless technical progress will challenge government agencies at the local, state and federal level to rethink the way they deliver constituent services while creating a positive civil service experience. These agencies can champion their civil servants throughout this transformation but doing so requires defining their AI Civil Service Ambition today and investing now in developing an agile, resilient workforce and an institutional culture that values agility, resilience and continuous learning. Government agencies that succeed at this challenge will help position their civil servants to thrive regardless of whatever challenges AI brings to the workforce.

About this article

Authors
Sean Jackson

Managing Director, Consulting, Ernst & Young LLP

Creative, collaborative and transformational technology leader.

Anthony Massa

Senior Consultant, Government and Public Sector, Ernst & Young LLP

Passionate about people and unlocking human potential. Lifelong learner, runner, traveler. Lover of good food, good music and great friends.

Related topics Government and Public Sector
Upvote