Artificial Intelligence: Cost Effectiveness
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what estimate she has made of central government efficiency savings to be made from AI over the Spending Review period.
Answered by Ian Murray
The Government is already investing heavily in AI to drive efficiency and productivity. In the recent Spending Review, we committed £1.2 billion of funding in digital and AI across public services.
Work undertaken by the Office for Value for Money at SR25 identified total annual efficiency gains of almost £14bn by 2028-29, of which the Government expects digital to contribute a substantial portion of this. Some individual departments have already set efficiency targets covering the Spending Review period. The Home Office has outlined efficiency gains of £533 million per year by 2028-29, partly driven through increased automation, whilst the Ministry of Justice targets £356 million per year by the same period through AI adoption and the use of technology for offender management in the community.
The Government Digital Service (GDS) will work with HM Treasury to measure central government departments’ contributions to this by tracking the digital efficiencies they’ve identified in their delivery plans by the end of the spending review period. GDS will also draw on productivity and efficiency information from across the public sector to understand how government is driving wider efficiency.
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