Enhancing Government Case Management: Six AI-Driven Use Cases

Australia's federal government has established a taskforce dedicated to ensuring the safe and responsible use of AI within the public service. This initiative aims to maximise the benefits of AI technology for the broader community. Complementing the AI in Government Taskforce, interim guidance introduced last year is also facilitating the transformation of service delivery to Australians.

The government has also established an AI expert group, implementing an action plan that has been in effect since 2021. Various federal and state agencies across Australia are exploring the implementation of AI technology.

For instance, the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions (OPP), the state’s largest criminal legal practice, is implementing a case management system on the Appian AI Process Platform to enhance its operations. The solution leverages Appian’s data fabric and automation technology to accelerate resolution of criminal matters. The solution will drive efficiency to accelerate and improve the resolution process experience for employees and crime victims. By streamlining operations, reducing administrative burdens, and automating processes, the OPP will be well positioned to enhance productivity and optimise service delivery.

How AI can enhance Australian government case management

Case management is one particularly impactful area for government agencies to enhance with AI. There are many complex case management applications at government level, spanning a vast spectrum from building consents to permitting, and in the case of the Victorian OPP, collecting evidence for prosecuting criminal cases. 

Food and drug safety are other areas where Australian government agencies could benefit from AI. What’s common in all use cases is that they involve multiple steps with various documents and stakeholders, such as officials that approve applications and permits.

Some examples of how AI can be leveraged in government agencies, include:

• Automating routine tasks to increase efficiency.
• Analysing large datasets to identify patterns and trends for better decision-making.
• Summarising information from multiple documents.
• Filing documents in appropriate systems or folders.
• Providing predictive analytics to anticipate and address potential issues proactively.

Additionally, advanced large language model (LLM) AI systems can understand, analyse, interpret, and generate human language. They use deep learning techniques to predict, produce and output coherent text in response to prompts provided by users. An LLM trained on government agency data is capable of tasks like text extraction, translation, summarisation, and conversational responses.

LLM AI systems provide intuitive interactions with data or documents through natural language queries, meaning users can ask questions through chat and receive answers based on the data.

Six AI-driven scenarios in government casework

The applications of AI in government casework are limitless, but some common examples include:

1. Fraud detection. AI can analyse vast amounts of data from financial transactions to detect patterns indicative of fraudulent activity. This lets government agencies prevent and address fraud more effectively.

2. Public service chatbots. AI-powered chatbots can assist Australians by providing quick responses to common queries, guiding them through application processes, and offering support services around the clock throughout the week. The technology can also improve accessibility and reduce government employees’ workload.

3. Procurement. AI applications can forecasting demand, detect anomalies in bids and contracts, evaluate risks, improve vendor communications, analyse performance metrics, and much more.

4. Resource allocation. AI can help in the efficient allocation of resources by analysing data to predict areas of high demand for public services, such as healthcare or law enforcement response, ensuring that resources are directed where they are most needed.

5. Legal research and analysis. Natural language processing algorithms can sift through legal databases to identify relevant precedents, statutes, and regulations, thereby streamlining the legal review process and improving accuracy.

6. Environmental monitoring and management. AI technologies such as satellite imagery analysis and sensor networks can be used for environmental monitoring and management by tracking changes in land use, air quality, water pollution, and biodiversity. This data can inform policy decisions, support environmental assessments, and facilitate early warning systems for natural disasters.

Private AI: the safe and secure way to deploy AI in government

While AI can certainly enhance efficiencies, its use in government agency workflows raises significant privacy and security concerns. Ensuring that data remains confidential and is handled in a way that is compliant with regulations and policies is crucial to maintaining public trust and national security. But passing government data to public AI engines runs the risk of exposing sensitive information.

Public AI engines use all available data for training, meaning that if government data is available to them, it could become part of the training set, potentially exposing sensitive information and compromising privacy and security. This underscores the importance of using private AI models to ensure government data remains confidential and protected.

Appian has addressed these concerns in its Case Management Studio for Public Sector solution. It uses a private AI model to ensure that data remains proprietary. It keeps the data securely within the organisation's own systems, without sharing it externally.

Instead of sending data to a central server, the model is trained directly on the organisation's data, allowing that organisation to retain full control and ownership over its sensitive information and safeguarding proprietary data from unauthorised access or exposure.

Through a strategic collaboration with AWS, leveraging Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker, Appian is able to host LLMs within customer compliance boundaries on the Appian Platform. This ensures that data remains secure and enables Appian customers to create and train proprietary AI models.

Furthermore, all data hosted on the Appian cloud meets the data residency requirements of Australian government agencies, with all data used during development, production and disaster recovery located in Australia, not offshore. 

Unlocking the Full Potential of AI in Public Service

There is tremendous potential for AI to have a positive impact on all sections of Australia’s public service, improving service delivery for employees and the public. While digital tools are already reshaping Australia’s public sector, with 85% of government workers experiencing digital transformation initiatives in their departments and agencies, there is still significant work needed to fully harness the capabilities of AI.

It is imperative for government bodies at every level to educate their staff on new AI tools as they’re introduced. Leading this effort is Appian, who is at the forefront of integrating AI into Australian public service operations.