Civil servants could be replaced by chatbots under Government plans to reduce the Whitehall payroll.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will today unveil plans to save millions of pounds of taxpayers money using artificial intelligence rather than real people.
He is launching a £110million drive to use tech and specialised staff to carry out ‘dogsbody work’ that will allow the service to be streamlined, with costs and numbers having soared since the pandemic.
As Ministers seek ways of reducing costs to allow Jeremy Hunt to cut taxes in next month’s Budget Mr Dowden said AI use in Westminster and the NHS was ‘the only way, I think, if we want to get on a sustainable path to headcount reduction’.
He told the Telegraph: ‘Remember how much the size of the Civil Service has grown as a result of the pandemic and, and EU exit preparedness. We need to really embrace this stuff to drive the numbers down.’
At the end of last year the IPPR think tank said that rolling out new technologies such as ChatGPT across the public sector could save an estimated £24 billion a year.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will today unveil plans to save millions of pounds of taxpayers money using artificial intelligence rather than real people.
At the end of last year the IPPR think tank said that rolling out new technologies such as ChatGPT across the public sector could save an estimated £24 billion a year.
Earlier this month a survey revealed civil servants are among those who prefer to work from the office the least despite ministers trying to pressure Whitehall staff back to their desks.
When asked how much they wanted to be in the office, civil servants said they would prefer to spend just 2.1 days each week on average.
The only sector that wanted to be in the office less were those working in telecommunications, the survey of 2,000 employees by recruitment firm Randstad found.
Behind civil servants and telecommunications, those working in financial services (2.5 days), transport (2.6 days) and manufacturing (2.7 days) also showed little appetite for the number of days they had to be in the office.
It comes as Rishi Sunak continues his push to move Government workers away from working from home following the pandemic – a battle which was also faced by Boris Johnson and his ally Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Concerns have been raised that working away from the office is reducing productivity and leading to longer waiting times for services.
By Daily Mail Online, February 29, 2024