- New framework launched to ensure government can harness the benefits of AI to make project delivery more efficient.
- Government project delivery professionals will be empowered to experiment with AI to solve major challenges.
- Upskilling project delivery professionals in AI and data analytics will help address issues like overspending and delays.
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) today published a new framework which sets out how AI will be harnessed to boost productivity in the delivery of public projects.
The framework enables civil servants working on more than £805 billion of public projects to use AI to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their delivery.
The guidelines encourage responsible experimentation with AI to find solutions to the biggest challenges in public projects.
The IPA will work with intergovernmental AI leaders to oversee a series of innovative pilot projects. The most successful experiments can potentially be deployed to optimize performance.
Under the new framework, the upskilling of project delivery professionals in data analytics and AI will also be accelerated to help address issues such as overspending and delays.
The release of the framework follows Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden’s speech on ‘AI for the Public Good’, which outlined the Government’s commitment to using AI to revolutionize public services, boost productivity and save money taxpayers’ money.
The report also recommends that barriers to data sharing be removed where appropriate, by developing common standards, infrastructure and processes, so that the potential of new technologies can be realized.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe, Minister of State for the Cabinet Office, said:
The innovation we are seeing in data analytics and AI has the potential to significantly benefit the delivery of government projects and, more importantly, save taxpayer dollars.
As a former business leader, I am delighted that our new framework expresses our determination to further explore possibilities through collaboration, upskilling and experimentation.
The importance of greater collaboration between the government and its partners, in order to create conditions conducive to the development of innovation, is also highlighted in the new framework.
Karina Singh, Director of Function, Knowledge and Profession at the IPA, said:
The use of advanced technologies, particularly AI, is a topic of general and current interest.
This document cuts through the noise to provide a framework of actions that we can use to experiment and upskill project delivery professionals to get the most out of this rapidly evolving development.
