Technology has revolutionized the way we communicate, stay informed, entertain ourselves, and ultimately, live. But it has also impacted how Government manages operations and services. Adopting technology in this sector is not just about modernization or efficiency; it’s about addressing the citizens’ needs and helping solve society’s biggest challenges.
Government can harness technology, such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Cloud, to improve its operations and optimize processes and resources by automating, simplifying, and speeding up administrative tasks, reducing costs, errors, and response times. According to Gartner, by 2026, more than 70% of government agencies will use AI to enhance human administrative decision making and will measure the productivity increases achieved that way.
Across the Americas region, government entities have been investing in different technologies to address their biggest challenges and achieve their goals. Here are some notable examples.
Democratizing and optimizing public service
One of the big opportunities faced by Government sectors is to provide quality education to millions of students and teachers. The Government of the State of São Paulo and Microsoft collaborated to integrate AI into the educational system, using Azure OpenAI Service to streamline tasks such as essays corrections, test scoring, and student guidance.
The Federal Attorney General’s Office (AGU) of Brazil is using Azure OpenAI Service and its document manager, Sapiens, to create an AI copilot that can generate and analyze legal texts using various data sources. This solution aims to automate and optimize judicial processes, improve decision-making, and free-up time for strategic work, while ensuring security, data privacy, and compliance.
The Institute to Return the Stolen to the People (INDEP), the Mexican federal institution managing the sale and auction of unproductive or confiscated assets by the Mexican State and the first one to migrate to Azure cloud in Mexico, developed a solution integrating Azure ExpressRoute to enable private connections to the cloud and comply with the federal policy of transitioning from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to IPv6 – significantly enhancing security and performance, ensuring greater confidentiality and integrity, improving data transfer speeds and reducing response times.
The City of Kelowna, in its pursuit to become the best digitally managed city in Canada, collaborated with Zammo.ai to leverage AI to upgrade its 311 non-emergency help line. The city introduced an AI-powered chat and voice technology, integrating Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cognitive Search, to offer detailed guidance on complex bylaws and services. Five topic-specific chatbots (Revenue, Landfill, Recreation, Bylaw Services after hours and snow) now exist as the first point of contact with customers to answer common questions or transfer to staff for more specific or complex issues. This innovative approach extended service hours, reduced resolution times, and simplified procedures such as obtaining housing permissions.
In Argentina, the City of Buenos Aires has added innovation to Boti, a chatbot designed to provide agile and personalized communications with residents, becoming one of their preferred channels for accessing city information, scheduling appointments, submitting requests, and resolving procedures and inquiries quickly and easily. Now enhanced with Azure Open AI Service, Boti features a new dynamic conversational interface that enriches the tourist experience by offering personalized plans in English or Spanish and providing quick and easy-to-use responses through mobile devices. This technology achieved a 50% reduction in design and implementation time compared to traditional development methods.
By leveraging the Azure cloud platform and Azure Open AI Service to digitize and automate its procurement processes, the General Services Administration (ASG) of Puerto Rico achieved a digital transformation that saved over $60 million, optimized procurement process, increased efficiency and transparency in government hiring, and improved the quality of goods and services for public agencies.
Technology to better serve citizens
Technology is not only a tool, but also a driver of change and improvement for Government. By adopting and adapting to new technologies, they can better serve their citizens, address their needs, and solve their challenges. Technology can also empower citizens to participate more actively and effectively in public affairs and hold their governments accountable.
Microsoft is uniquely positioned to help Government achieve their goals through a wide range of solutions to deliver innovation in programs and experiences, empower the government workforce, transform operations and services, and protect data and resources. Through its Responsible AI initiative, which emphasizes fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability, Microsoft ensures that AI technologies are trustworthy and beneficial, making them ideal for government use.