People fear AI could take the human touch out of public services, but they see the opportunity for a smarter, less bureaucratic state, according to a new poll from Deloitte and the think tank re: State.
The findings come from the latest Deloitte’s annual ‘State of the State’ report, which includes an exclusive Ipsos UK poll that examines attitudes towards government and public services, and interviews with senior public sector officials.
When asked to name the top risks associated with AI, 51% said ‘reduced human contact’, 50% said ‘potential job losses’ and 47% said ‘loss of human oversight’.
When asked about the potential benefits, 33% said the public sector could ‘analyse more information’, 33% said AI could lead to ‘less admin’ and 26% said it could ‘reduce costs’.
Then main priorities for the public were the ‘the cost of living’ (74%) followed by ‘the NHS’ (69%). ‘Immigration and border security’ was third (53%), having climbed ten percentage points since the 2023 survey. The other most notable shift since 2023 was ‘climate change’, which has gone down as a priority for the public by 13 percentage points to 30%.
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