Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is either one of the most avoided or one of the best received concepts in society today, depending on your opinion.  For many, when they think of A.I., visions of robots and HAL from “2001 A Space Odyssey” come to mind.   However, A.I. is already in many aspects of our lives, including our homes and cars.  Where we don’t always think of applications for A.I. is government.

For most of us, interacting with government is usually done face-to-face or talking with someone on the phone.  That concept of government is changing, not as fast as the private sector, but is changing nonetheless.  I recently attended the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) annual Exchange Conference.  This is an annual meeting of public procurement professionals and vendors.  In one of the sessions it was mentioned that A.I. could help with public procurement.  Also, NASPO has identified the utilization of business intelligence tools as a top five issue on the horizon for state procurement offices.  This does not mean that robots will be procuring the fleet of police cars for your local community.  However, it does show that government is looking at ways to utilize this technology.

What does this mean? 

It means that A.I. could take over some of the mundane tasks, freeing government employees to work on more complex issues and serve the citizens in a more efficient manner.  For citizens, it could mean less time standing in-line at a government office or on hold waiting for someone to answer your question.  In the future, many of these questions will be answered by “bots” either through a quick call or online.  Imagine having your tax questions answered in a couple of minutes, instead of weeding through the menu on the phone?

As a professional in the public procurement space, I am excited to see how state government can use A.I. to make procurement even better.  An article in Source Today outlined three areas where A.I. may help procurement in the future:

1. Create a smarter procurement process
2. Greater automation of menial procurement tasks
3. Better identification of opportunities that deliver bottom-line impact

Of course, this will take time, money, and effort to implement over time, it will also mean training people on the new technology. However, ultimately this will free them up to focus on more high-level projects.

Michigan Legislative Consultants is a bipartisan lobbying firm based in Lansing, Michigan. Our team of lobbyists and procurement specialists provide a wide range of services for some of the most respected companies in America. For more on MLC, visit www.mlcmi.com or connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.