Work
Defining AI implementation across UK government
We worked with ten different government departments and hundreds of stakeholders to provide a framework and guide. The guide makes the UK the first government in the world to implement this kind tool kit for its civil servants.
Customer
The UK government (Government Digital Service and Office for AI).
Problem
The UK government has recognised the significant economic benefits of artificial intelligence technology and the opportunity to make key investments as part of the AI Sector Deal. Faculty was selected to lead the recent pre-Spending Review cross-government assessment of how data science could be employed in the public sector and support with the development of an AI guide to help civil servants apply AI solutions successfully in their policy areas.
Solution
In identifying the different opportunity areas for impactful AI application, we worked with ten different government departments and hundreds of different stakeholders to run structured workshops aimed at identifying and creating a longlist of the high value opportunities for the implementation of AI. We then prioritised these using a bespoke, three-tiered framework, providing recommendations on which use-cases should be prioritised for the forthcoming spending review.
We also provided specific pieces of advice on what actions the UK government needed to take to help promote AI adoption in the public sector. These enabling conditions were based on findings from the ‘Discovery’ phase, and focused on three pillars: data infrastructure, data governance and people.
At the same time we also developed an AI Guide, a resource designed to train civil servants in how to spot opportunities to use AI and how to implement the technology to their various real world policy problems. This guidance was aimed at two main profiles: departmental leads looking to prioritise the best opportunities to deploy AI and delivery leads seeking to successfully use AI to solve a specific problem within a policy area.
Our contribution to the guide was informed by our experience of delivering over 450 commercial AI projects spanning many different industries, as well as our expertise in skills training drawn from our fellowship programme and experience in AI skills training for both executives and technical teams. The guide is split across four main parts: defining artificial intelligence, how to assess if it’s the right solution, how to plan and prepare for AI implementation and managing AI projects.
Impact
We were able to identify eight scoped core areas of the public sector where the government has significant investment opportunity in AI. The guide has also now been published on GOV.UK and as a piece of accessible AI guidance, makes the UK the first government in the world to implement this kind tool kit for its civil servants.