Today, agencies that deliver essential citizen services including the Departments of Labor, Commerce, the Census Bureau, and USDA face a monumental task. Whether the agency is processing millions of unemployment claims, surveying the population in the decennial census, collecting economic data, or delivering farm program benefits all must be prepared to meet their constituents where they are, when they need benefits, and be able to scale their services to meet demand without faltering under pressure.
As agencies move away from legacy technologies and look to modernize the ways in which they connect and serve citizens, they’re discovering additional benefits. Not only are these new platforms more robust, secure, and scalable, but these AI, cloud, and analytics technologies deliver measurable outcomes. From reducing claims processing times from weeks to days, improving data accuracy and eliminating the time consumed fixing manual errors, by meeting citizen users where they are and with the tools they’re comfortable using, it’s clear that federal agencies are beginning a fundamental shift toward proactive, citizen-centered government.
“A proactive citizen-centered government is able to anticipate citizen needs, personalize interactions, and build lasting public trust because agencies are able to deliver mission-essential services reliably, efficiently, and transparently,” shared Chandler Moore, Federal Civilian Business Development Manager at Maximus. “By transforming how agencies work, we can help them deliver successfully on the mission and strengthen the relationship between agencies and the people they serve.”
While there’s no question about the importance to this vision, agencies have been cautious to put a stake in the ground, expressing concerns over complexity, costs, and return on investment, but these concerns are unfounded, according to Evan Davis, Executive Managing Director, Federal Growth at Maximus. “As cloud technology has matured and with AI’s rapid integration into solutions and workflows, the key concerns are addressed, and these next generation service delivery solutions are more intuitive and responsive for both the agencies deploying them and the citizens using them,” Davis explained.
One example that was top of mind, is the ability to tap into real-time analytics generated by next generation contact centers to avoid system crashes, which are a primary source of citizen frustration in agency interactions. “Real-time analytics enable agencies to avoid crashes and system-wide outages before agents and citizens even start to notice glitches,” he shared. “During the 2020 Census that was conducted under pandemic stressors, the Census Bureau’s contact center experienced no downtime. Working with the Census Bureau, we were able to use the analytics generated across all channels of interaction to identify system stressors and build resilience into the system so that citizens could reach out, get answers, and be able to complete forms to fulfill their civic duty.”
But being able to keep systems up and running is just one of the challenges facing federal agencies in their pursuit of seamless service delivery. Davis and Moore were quick to point out another challenge agencies routinely face when interacting with citizens. “Citizens reach out to agencies only when they need something,” explained Davis. “And while their need might be pressing, they are often unable to fully complete forms in one sitting or interaction.” From farmers who collect data in the field, but who can’t upload it until they’re back at the homestead, to an unemployment insurance claimant who forgot a key piece of information, reasons for form abandonment are many and varied, but all too common.
“High abandonment and error rates on forms often begin as design issues, but they quickly become an even bigger issue when applicants leave a form unfinished and are forced to start over from scratch when they return to finish the task.” added Moore. “Integrating AI into form fills to guide the citizen through the form has been shown to reduce errors and mitigate abandonment. Moreover, visualizing and building the workflow so that work can be paused and stored, and data retrieved when the citizen is ready to proceed reduces frustration, increases completion, and ensures that citizens across the country have the same digital experience. “Removing the obstacles created by differences in connectivity, differences in access to digital tools, and even comfort and familiarity with digital experiences, improves service delivery immeasurably and builds trust between the citizen and the agency,” added Davis.
The final major challenge facing federal agencies today is the overall reduction in the government workforce. Between retrenchments, retirements, resignations, and hiring freezes, the federal workforce has been reduced by over 10 percent in the last year. “A smaller workforce is the new normal operating structure for the federal government,” shared Davis. “But at a time when AI is being integrated into nearly every system, a small workforce can be a highly efficient one. We’ve touched on how AI can assist citizens navigate complex forms through guided conversations, but it is just as empowering for federal workers behind the scenes.” Davis shared many examples of AI assistance for federal workers from data validation to eligibility checks, data entry and chatbots that can triage citizen inquiries, this technology can automate the routine and empower the worker.
As federal agencies transition to operating in an outcomes-based mindset, understanding how technology supports the outcome is imperative. “Agencies are moving away from being measured by the number of clicks on a website or how many call center agents they employ,” Davis noted. “Today, they’re reframing success as the number of benefits delivered, the number of businesses served, jobs created, or families supported because these metrics are the mission.”