In a candid and wide-ranging discussion on digital transformation, senior government officials and technology experts laid bare the challenges and opportunities facing the UK public sector’s digital evolution.
Run in partnership between the New Statesman and Appian, a leading enterprise software company that specialises in process automation, attendees gathered in Westminster to discuss the road ahead for a public sector dogged by inefficiencies, legacy platforms and red tape. But rapid digitisation and automation is now a political priority. “Having worked as a civil servant for five years, there’s always an inhibition in government when it comes to technology and change,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last year. “I saw a real fear of change. We need to make sure that the culture and mindset is changed as well.”
Participants at the roundtable shared these frustrations – along with a mixture of ambition, success stories, and cautious optimism. One participant who works in a technology leadership role within the public sector set the tone early, describing her department’s transformation journey as a mission to become “digital first“. They candidly acknowledged the sector’s historical limitations: “We were still operating a little bit like in the 1980s,” they said of first entering their role in 2020. “Digital is now absolutely a core part of how we deliver those services,” they added. “Our ambition really is to get to a place where we can provide all the advice and support that [our clients] might need to operate through our digital offering. We want that to be personalised, and we want that to be proactive as well.”
The issues the public sector faces that could be solved by technology “haven’t really changed for the last couple of decades,” reflected another participant. “With a new wave of technology – such as AI – coming down the road, I think [the challenges are] just going to compress and exaggerate even further. So the challenge therefore is how do we foster that pivot moment where we move into that brave new world?” They made clear that there is no silver bullet: “I genuinely don’t think it’s technology alone.”
As the discussion widened, leadership emerged as a critical pain point. One contributor noted that, while there are brilliant individuals working across government and other areas of the public sector, there is perhaps a lack of a maverick culture. “I can’t really point to anyone who has that Steve Jobs mentality,” they said, “stepping into his ‘I’m going to make that work’ [mindset]… who’s got the vision, that follow me mentality. Whilst you’ve got a huge bunch of capable people in various departments doing their work brilliantly, it’s about how to bring that altogether.”
This aligns with the findings of a report on public sector productivity, commissioned by Appian and Coforge. It surveyed 1,000 public sector workers across government, healthcare, education, and emergency services. The report found that 94 per cent of civil servants found barriers to delivering citizen services – chief among them being manual tasks, legacy systems, and a lack of support. Respondents said that such inefficiencies are coming at a cost – both practical and financial: totalling up to 30.6 million hours of lost productivity each week. On average, staff face five extra hours of work or delays weekly due to outdated or disconnected processes. In spite of the status-quo, the report found optimism for what digital, especially AI, can do. Around 62 per cent of respondents expressed having some confidence in AI’s ability to improve operations, though concerns persist around data security, skills gaps, and job displacement.
At the discussion, AI emerged as both a source of excitement and anxiety. One participant working in the public sector outlined their team’s ambitious target of delivering a third of efficiency savings through AI by 2028/2029. It caused an audible response from their fellow attendees; a reflection of the challenge at hand. “We’re focusing on asking, ‘How do we track it?’” they said. “We’re trying these [AI] toolkits that we’ve been developing… We’re now asking, ‘how does that then turn into pound savings?’”
The conversation repeatedly returned to the need for a cultural shift, with speakers emphasising that digital transformation is fundamentally about people, not just technology. Data sharing remained a persistent challenge. If the current government is to fulfil its wish of having its siloed departments cross-collaborate, then overcoming this obstacle is key. One participant described the current system as bureaucratically absurd: “Every department has to go cap-in-hand to another department to request data,” they said. If that is solved, then, coupled with AI, serious productivity (and therefore cost) gains could be made.
“I think there’s two areas for me where AI is going to [help government departments],” they continued. “In high-volume processing, where it’s just churning through motions. And I see another area around pre-emptive, risk controlling, looking ahead, what if analysis, which isn’t high volume, but could be higher value [returns].”
As the session concluded, the participants returned to a core theme: the need for a more agile, experimental approach to digital transformation. One attendee perhaps best captured the overall mood with a question, noting the historical juncture we’re at, and comparing the current technological shift to previous industrial transformations. “Are we going to be the drivers,” they asked, “or are we going to be driven?”
The UK public sector stands at a critical moment. The path to digital transformation will require leadership, courage, and willingness to uncertainty. That last point does not mean reckless abandon, one participant warned: “We can track the impacts, we can course-correct, test hypotheses, and we can hold a big vision that we’re heading towards and then take very small steps and check ourselves after every step.” The discussion made clear that the future is not necessarily about perfect planning, but about creating the conditions for continuous learning and adaptation – and a willingness to take the wheel.
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