“Let’s do something with AI. It’ll surely turn out great.”
That’s roughly how I imagine some of the planning happening in administrations worldwide.

But how can it be done better? For that, today we look at India. Because before Delhi rolls out AI everywhere, it first makes its data AI-ready. That means: first, all data gets modernised, standardised, and made interchangeable. THEN, and only then, do they build AI systems that can access that very data. Why does that matter? Because even the best AI system is nothing without data. And that data is often still sitting in paper files or formats from 1973.

The goal here isn’t just a more efficient internal administration. It’s about a different form of state service delivery altogether. In future, Delhi wants to make stronger use of data in order to offer services proactively — for example, to identify people who are likely entitled to certain social benefits but aren’t yet enrolled.

A problem we know from Germany too. In India, in future, it will no longer be the case that the citizen has to find the right benefit and be able to apply for it. The administration will take care of that for them. A real blessing for people with limited IT access and skills.

What do you think of proactive government?

Image: Sylwia Bartyzel for Unsplash

You can find this post on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/janwegener_ki-verwaltungsdigitalisierung-data-activity-7500802284465922048-yyE3?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAF-yDsQBgbICDl3wlRGoCQSZHiHxHemNJR8