AI Watch - Artificial Intelligence in public services. Overview of the use and impact of AI in public services in the EU

This report is published in the context of AI Watch, the European Commission knowledge service to monitor the development, uptake and impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Europe, launched in December 2018 as part of the Coordinated Plan on the Development and Use of AI Made in Europe. The report presents the results of the mapping of the use of AI in support of public services in the EU. The analysis serves to contribute landscaping the current state of the art in the field, and provide a preliminary overview of Member States efforts to integrate AI in their government operations and adopt AI-enabled innovations in the public sector. From the analysis it emerges that the interest on the use of AI within governments to support redesigning governance processes and policy-making mechanisms, as well as to improve public services delivery and engagement with citizens is growing. Governments across the EU are exploring the potential of AI use to improve policy design and evaluation, while reorganising the internal management of public administrations at all levels. Indeed, when used in a responsible way, the combination of new, large data sources with advanced machine learning algorithms could radically improve the operating methods of the public sector, thus paving the way to pro-active public service delivery models and relieving resource constrained organisations from mundane and repetitive tasks.