Throughout 2022, global governments have continued to accelerate and scale their digital initiatives. However, governments have experienced the limitations and risks of legacy infrastructure and core systems. To be better equipped to deal with the next disruption and provide more innovative and effective services to its citizens, they are accelerating the move to modern, modular architectures. Gartner predicts that by 2025, over 50% of government agencies will have modernized critical core legacy applications to improve resilience and agility.

While COVID-19 was a definite catalyst in their digital adoption journey, another critical aspect is changing citizen expectations. Citizens have a growing expectation of being able to access government services easily and instantly. As a result, it's essential for government agencies across the world to develop concrete action plans for technologies such as conversational platforms, blockchain technology, edge computing, and cloud computing to maximize the value to the government workforce, businesses, citizens, and the complex ecosystems on which all of these services depend.

Indian Government Championing The AI Revolution

The Indian Government is investing heavily in AI and exploring its applications to encourage its use. According to a report by AIMResearch titled "How The Indian Government Is Championing The AI Revolution," the use cases of AI in the Indian Government include facial recognition and hotspot analysis, biometric identification, criminal investigation, traffic and crowd management, wearables to empower women's safety, optimizing revenues in the forest, cleaning rivers, tiger protection, digital agriculture, student progress monitoring, and more.

For instance, the Government has recently implemented an AI-driven Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), which allows citizens to access banking services such as balance inquiry, cash withdrawal, and money transfer using their Aadhaar number and fingerprint. In addition, AEPS will enable users to use their Aadhaar cards, biometric authentication, and an AI-driven interface to make payments at the point of sale (POS) machines. This AI-driven interface simplifies payments, driving India into its next steps of digital transformation.

The face recognition system has been one of the most unique and intricate developments the Indian Government has implemented with AI. This sophisticated system helps identify and verify individuals for various purposes, including granting citizens access to government services. For example, the Government of Tamil Nadu, with TNeGA, has developed an AI-based attendance system that uses the Face Recognition System, or FRS, to detect latecomers at the school. The TNeGA has also deployed AI in various other methods, such as the pest control system, street light monitoring system, or even the Cataract Screening App, to detect and increase efficiency.

Conversational AI makes citizen experiences personalized, convenient, and instant

Amid all this, we have also seen increased demand for and adoption of Conversational AI solutions by the Indian public sector. Citizens served by public-sector organizations can range from hundreds to thousands of millions, especially in a country like India, with a population of over 1.38 billion. Similarly, government agencies need to field and address numerous complaints, and to do so manually is time-consuming and often daunting. Also, dealing with mundane queries can lead to agencies needing more urgent and critical questions from citizens. Such repetitive inquiries can be overwhelming and hinder staff in the public sector from performing their primary job duties.

That's where automation via Conversational AI can improve efficiency and human productivity, streamlining the overall process of delivering citizen services digitally while keeping humans in the loop. Conversational AI-powered Dynamic AI agents can do it all, from directing citizens to the correct information to assisting them in scheduling appointments with government departments and sending reminders for these appointments to disseminating information about ongoing initiatives and enabling them to fill out otherwise tedious forms for various services quickly. In addition, it elevates the citizen experience by eliminating the need to navigate a challenging website or transactional interface. Conversational AI solutions also reduce the time and resources required to address repetitive questions. Similarly, Dynamic AI agents can help large departments and organizations provide internal services like IT help desks, legal, HR, and financial services more consistently and effectively.

Instant personalization is the key to creating differentiated experiences, and Conversational AI does it efficiently and at scale. Let's discuss the critical facets of Conversational AI deployments in the Indian government sector. 

• Multilingual capabilities are essential to enable wider accessibility: The adoption of Conversational AI allows governments to make services accessible at the grassroots through multilingual capabilities, ensuring more comprehensive coverage across rural areas and tier 2 and 3 cities. For instance, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) deployed Urja. This Dynamic AI agent supports over 13 languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu, and Assamese. In addition, over 45% of the conversations with Urja are in non-English languages, ensuring inclusivity for all BPCL customers. Urja is catering to customers from across diverse sets of demographics, economic strata, and varying levels of digital awareness on a single platform while also being capable of personalizing the experience for them individually.
• Channel of communication varies with the market: One of the critical considerations is the choice of channel, which determines the success of the Conversational AI deployment. In a messaging-first market like India, WhatsApp has become synonymous with messaging. With its all-pervasive presence across the country, it is observed that the channel has the highest open rates for notifications, as high as 95 per cent. As a result, it has become an important channel to digitally connect, interact, and deliver services to citizens because of the platform's value-added features. One such feature is WhatsApp Pay. The recent launch of India's first WhatsApp-based QR ticketing service by Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) is a case in point. The end-to-end ticketing service is powered by our multilingual, Dynamic AI agent that has helped over 100,000 commuters recharge their metro cards, buy tickets, and even plan their journey. With the QR ticketing service, metro riders can make quick and secure payments for their tickets right from the same WhatsApp interface by choosing WhatsApp Pay. In addition, users can make online payments with a payment method of their choice. Frequent commuters can also recharge their Metro smart cards using the Dynamic AI agent, eliminating the need to stand in long queues.
• Every use case is distinct and needs a unique approach: When designing the Conversational AI flow for any government deployment, it is essential to understand the nuances of the exceptional case. No one-size-fits-all approach to public service use cases must be automated. This is especially true for India, where the challenges are unique to every state and need a highly customized approach. For instance, one key consideration during the conversational design process is: "What mode would best fit the use-case—text, voice, or a multimodal deployment?" For instance, the Government of Maharashtra Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) has deployed Conversational AI to reach out to potential beneficiaries via informational campaigns, primarily in Marathi, centred on the department's key schemes around nutrition and the welfare of pregnant and lactating mothers. Keeping in mind the target group here, the deployment is multimodal, leveraging SMS, IVR, and WhatsApp as channels that perform cohesively to ensure that intended users get adequate information at their fingertips through the channel and language of their convenience. As a result, in the last quarter alone, the department has successfully run over 4.2 million informational campaigns, reaching out to over 590,000 users on these channels.

What does the future hold?

These are just some of the few cases where the Indian Government has implemented AI and its various technologies to help uplift and benefit its citizens. Nevertheless, many other sectors are untapped and can benefit from implementing AI technology. While the first wave of AI aims at solving simple problems and providing viable solutions, the next wave will be all about solving complex problems and providing personalized solutions. Internationally, the Government of Singapore has leveraged AI to detect and analyze financial crimes. The AI tracks financial transactions to detect fraudulent and suspicious activity, such as money laundering. The Government of the UK is currently using the benefits of AI to scan images and videos to see signs of cancer, while the Government of the Netherlands is leveraging AI to detect welfare fraud by detecting digital welfare dystopia. With the proper infrastructure and research and development, AI can become a powerful tool to transform modern governance. 

Photo by DeepMind on Unsplash