Potential Use of Digital Assistants by Governments for Citizen Services: The Case of Germany

The German government has recently a nnounced a national strategy for making Germany one of the leading locations for artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide. While the AI technology has been around since 1950s, the rise of it has been inescapable over the past decades. Current developments an d widespread applications of intelligent technologies show signs that they will become even more prevalent in our lives. In public administrations, AI can support faster decision making and increase responsiveness leading to higher citizen satisfaction. Di gital assistants can carry out a wide range of functions ranging from checking applications against fraud to approval of state benefits or other claims. Yet, no matter how groundbreaking the technology is, its acceptance by citizens is the ultimate criteri on of success, as in the case of all services offered by governments. We argue careful consideration needs to be given to citizen perspective as AI projects have high deployment and maintenance costs. Based on a nationwide representative survey, this resea rch aims to provide some initial insights on the perspective of citizens towards the potential use of digital assistants by the German government for citizen services.     «

The German government has recently a nnounced a national strategy for making Germany one of the leading locations for artificial intelligence (AI) worldwide. While the AI technology has been around since 1950s, the rise of it has been inescapable over the past decades. Current developments an d widespread applications of intelligent technologies show signs that they will become even more prevalent in our lives. In public administrations, AI can support faster decision making and increas...     »