5 uncomfortable practices to innovate with artificial intelligence in the public sector
Implementing artificial intelligence in the public sector is complex. Governments and other public organizations must navigate political interests, bureaucratic structures, and risk-averse cultures. Five uncomfortable practices can help public sector organizations navigate these complex environments and pave the way for effective, strategic AI innovation.
Despite some misconceptions, the public sector is not deficient in generating novel ideas. It demonstrates initiative in innovating services, processes, and policies, although with a lesser emphasis on technological innovation. However, where the public sector falls short is in transforming these ideas into valuable outcomes that benefit society and elevating them to a strategic level. Unlike the private sector, where innovation is directly tied to organizational survival and inherently strategic, public organizations must navigate dynamic political interests, bureaucratic structures, risk-averse cultures, and the need to balance conflicting goals and regulatory conditions. These constraints are particularly strong in the context of AI, leaving the sector at risk of not extracting the value of AI to benefit society. The following five practices can help overcome these barriers:
1. Accumulate strategy
The shift towards a data-driven paradigm necessitates a strategic approach, making it imperative to adopt a strategic mindset. Traditional strategy formulation in the public sector often involves protracted processes, addressing various interests and uncertainties, culminating in deterministic and detailed plans constrained by numerous factors. However, such an approach proves less effective in the realm of innovation. Agile strategies, characterized by the ability to evolve plans in response to emerging issues or events, offer a more viable alternative.
Initiate this with a “strategic construct” comprising a future vision based on common ground among key stakeholders, clear objectives, and initial actions. Continually expand your innovation strategy through quarterly assessments and adaptations based on practical evidence. This approach facilitates faster results and ensures strategies remain relevant and effective.
2. Challenge the constraints
The disruptive impact of data and AI requires establishing new rules, balancing the need for ethical, transparent use of technology with the flexibility to innovate. While setting boundaries is crucial, there is a tendency to accumulate constraints progressively limiting the space for innovation, especially when discussing a new phenomenon like AI. Innovation is as much about questioning existing regulatory, cognitive, and normative assumptions as it is about imposing new rules. Analyzing, reevaluating, prioritizing, and repositioning what is taken for granted is required to open doors for AI. A dichotomous perspective on what is legitimate and what is not can stifle innovation, while a more nuanced approach, even regarding regulations, is likely to offer new opportunities.
3. Build 'enough' support
The success of innovation strategies in the public sector depends on the strength and stability of supporting coalitions, while getting full support is unlikely or would likely imply removing most innovative characteristics from the original idea or dramatically increasing complexity to the level that the solution is unfeasible, prolonging the innovation process and leading to inertia. Public sector innovation thrives on creating winning coalitions of organizational and political leaders, and institutional players, that align efforts, even in the face of setbacks and backlash. It’s not about securing unanimous support, but enough to move forward effectively at any given time. Effectively managing and engaging the "participant arena" is indispensable for safeguarding and expanding the space required for innovation.
4. Deliver provocative projects
The cornerstone of success lies in the effective delivery of projects, serving as the catalyst for strategy development and the transition from a great idea to a comprehensive strategy. Beyond their instrumental role, these projects carry substantial symbolic weight, providing tangible evidence of success, challenging established norms, and broadening the space for innovation. Selected projects should provide tangible and symbolic evidence of success and challenge established norms. Frequently, initial projects center on technical aspects, such as establishing a data infrastructure, but organizations would be wise to prioritize projects with real-world impact, especially in the early stages to signal impact and expand the space for innovation. The nature of alliances formed, as discussed before, is key to identifying and championing these provocative projects.
5. Reallocate resources strategically
Addressing the essential dilemma of resource allocation in innovation is crucial. In public sector organizations, where budgets are often zero-based, venturing into new technologies frequently requires a strategic reallocation of funds. This process is inherently political, as it entails making choices among competing interests that are challenging to compare. To avoid difficult trade-offs, often only small budgets are concurrently made available, but this approach introduces inertia, drains organizational energy, and often leads to renegotiations and new conditions, thereby limiting the space for innovation. While an extended commitment spanning multiple years might not be obligatory from the start, a genuine financial commitment is imperative. Effectively transitioning to a new data-driven paradigm demands not only upfront capital for multiple “sprints” but also a business-oriented governance model to judiciously manage these funds.
AI innovation in the public sector isn't just about new ideas; it's about transforming those ideas into tangible benefits despite the constraints. These constraints are particularly strong in the context of AI because, by its very nature, it challenges conventions while creating uncertainty about how a new world will work. This is likely to be uncomfortable for the public sector. Dealing with this context will require adopting five uncomfortable practices, but they will help organizations navigate complex environments and pave the way for effective, strategic innovation.
