By the end of next year, this decade will be halfway over. It’s hard to imagine what the next five years will bring, given the tremendous technological changes we’ve seen since the decade’s start. A recent Forbes/VMWare survey identified several challenges facing government agency CIOs in the year ahead. Even though a relatively small sample of CIOs was surveyed, the issues they raised will all be very familiar to professionals serving in local government.
Citizen-customer Experience
The survey calls it the “consumerization of government” – the higher expectations citizens have from their governments to give them what they need quickly and with minimal effort. It’s exactly what the private sector calls “improving the customer experience” – companies have learned that better customer interactions are critical to their bottom line.
Citizens don’t typically purchase government services, but they do have some say with their votes. And the improvements they see when they interact with commercial enterprises in turn raise the bar for government agencies. Local governments will need to continue to improve their websites, phone, and other communication systems, as well as to streamline processes to make them simple and seamless for citizens.
At a conference held this month at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, researchers discussed how “human-centered design” is a new way of approaching the delivery of services to citizens, one which focuses on the challenges citizens face when interacting with state governments. These tend to break down into three burdens or “costs” which government entities should work to reduce:
- Learning costs, for example, choosing a Medicare Advantage plan among myriad state options
- Compliance costs, like the forms and documentation requirements to prove benefits eligibility
- Psychological costs, the stress and frustration that citizens experience when they interact with government entities
Rapidly Emerging Technologies
In one short year, the introduction of AI has impacted almost every organization in the country, and the aftershocks are not settling any time soon. It’s predicted that investments in AI could top $200 billion globally by 2025. While much of that investment will come from the private sector, local governments may also be impacted.
Unfortunately, that’s because AI is increasingly used to develop sophisticated cyberattacks against local governments, disrupting essential services and compromising sensitive information. Cyberattacks are costly, too – currently, the cost for a local or state government entity to recover from a ransomware attack is now close to $3 million.
But the risks from the rising use of AI are not restricted to cybercrime. Government entities must also watch for algorithmic bias that could lead to discrimination against citizens. For example, an investigation by the Washington Post found that some police departments had routinely misattributed the way they identified suspects to hide from suspects and their attorneys the fact that AI-powered systems were used. Predictive policing is another AI application that is fraught with opportunities for abuse. To address these issues, expect to see a wave of regulations to prevent AI misuse in coming years.
The High Cost of New Technologies
There are also a host of other newer technologies that local governments can benefit from. Edge computing, for example, offers opportunities for cities and counties to capture and leverage huge volumes of real time data to improve infrastructure, policing, and traffic operations. But this will require significant investments in hardware and skilled technology workers – a challenge for smaller local governments that already face budget constraints and manpower shortages.
And of course, there is the additional task of keeping up with changes in existing technology. Windows 10 is slated to go out of support in October 2025. QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT) 2021 and 2022 will no longer be supported after May 2025. In addition to onboarding new technologies, government teams will have to ensure that these software solutions are replaced.
If your agency is facing a long list of deliverables for 2025, talk to our specialists to learn how InterDev can help. We have decades of experience providing Managed IT Services, strategy and project support to local governments.
Image design by Freepik
