Driving Responsible Innovation and Ethics: AI in the Public Sector

4th June 2025

by Nicky Hjerpe

Artificial intelligence is quietly transforming how local governments operate and deliver services to their communities. While the private sector’s AI adoption often makes headlines, equally significant transformations are happening in town halls and council offices across the country, where they face budget constraints, increasing service demands, and staffing challenges. AI in the public sector offers enhanced efficiency, improved outcomes and personalised citizen services.

To learn more about AI, read our simple guide: Understanding AI

The promise of AI in the public sector

Local governments face a perfect storm of challenges: Tightening budgets, increasing service demands and staffing shortages. Many are turning to AI-powered solutions to help bridge these gaps. The potential benefits are compelling:

• More efficient processing of citizen requests and applications
• Personalised service delivery tailored to individual needs
• Predictive capabilities that allow for proactive intervention
• Automation of routine tasks, freeing staff for more complex work.

The ethical imperatives

With great innovation, comes great responsibility.

As AI adoption accelerates in the public sector, ethical considerations become paramount. Unlike businesses, local authorities have a universal service obligation – they must serve everyone fairly and transparently. It’s essential to safeguard and thoughtfully address the needs our most vulnerable citizens.

Ensuring fairness and transparency

AI systems are only as unbiased as the data they learn from. It they’re trained on flawed or incomplete datasets, these systems can inadvertently amplify existing inequalities. This highlights one of the central challenges of using AI in the public sector – ensuring that automation supports equity, rather than unintentionally reinforcing inequalities.

Local governments using AI for welfare assessments, housing allocations or other social services must be vigilant about potential bias. This requires diverse training data, regular algorithm audits and human oversight of automated decisions affecting vulnerable individuals.

Tewkesbury Borough Council has implemented natural language processing to better understand and respond to resident queries, ensuring people receive accurate help quickly regardless of their enquiry type.

“Liberty Converse uses advanced natural language processes (AI) to understand and respond to our wide range of our customers’ queries. In reality, this means our residents receive quick and accurate help – whether they’re calling about council services, reporting issues or needing information on something. It doesn’t matter really what they’re contacting us about, they’ll get the support they need quickly.“

Clare Evans

Director of Transformation, Tewkesbury Borough Council

Transparency builds trust

Citizens deserve to understand how decisions affecting their lives are made. As AI becomes integrated into governance, transparency is essential for maintaining public trust.

This doesn’t mean revealing the proprietary algorithms but providing accessible information about what data is being used, how it influences outcomes and where human judgment enters the process. This transparency helps address fears about AI as a mysterious “black box” making decisions without accountability.

Protecting vulnerable citizens

The ethical considerations more important in services for vulnerable populations than perhaps anywhere else. AI can help identify early warning signs and prioritise cases needing attention before crises develop. But, if they’re poorly implemented, these same systems could inadvertently neglect or further marginalise those most in need.

The key principle here is augmentation rather than replacement. AI should enhance human decision-making, not substitute for it. Social workers, housing officers, and other professionals remain the heart of service delivery, with AI providing valuable insights to support their judgment.

Some local authorities are already using pattern recognition in case data to identify at-risk individuals earlier. This proactive approach prevents crises and ensures resources reach those who need them most.

Questions worth asking include:

• Does this application enhance or potentially diminish equity?
• Are decisions explainable to those affected by them?
• What safeguards exist for vulnerable citizens?
• How is privacy protected throughout data collection and processing?

By prioritising these ethical considerations from the beginning, local authorities can harness the transformative potential of AI in the public sector, while maintaining the trust and confidence of their communities.

Upholding data ethics and privacy

Successfully integrating AI in the public sector requires thoughtful implementation guided by ethical principles.

As we utilise the power of AI in the public sector, at Netcall, our commitment to data ethics and privacy is paramount. It is essential for local governments to honour citizen privacy while also capitalising on AI to enhance the quality of services. We are leading the way for local authorities, with the Liberty platform offering with a robust commitment to ethical data practices, including:

• With Liberty for Local Government, fairness is a foundation and Liberty’s AI is designed to learn from unbiased, accurate data to ensure that decisions made by local authorities reflect fairness, whether assessing welfare applications or prioritising housing needs.
• Liberty guarantees that all citizen data is securely stored and processed, fully compliant with GDPR regulations. This gives local authorities the peace of mind that personal information is handled with the utmost care.
• Liberty’s AI promotes transparency by providing accessible insights into data processing and decision-making, offering clear and comprehensible insights to citizens regarding how their data informs AI-driven decisions. This transparency not only builds trust but also reassures citizens about how their information is being utilised.
• Liberty’s AI is equipped to highlight early warning signs and identify cases that need attention before issues escalate.
• Liberty’s AI enhances human decision-making rather than replacing it – human professionals remain the heartbeat of service delivery, with AI providing valuable insights to support them.

Building trust through responsible implementation

The future of AI in the public sector isn’t just about technological capability – it’s about responsible innovation that puts citizens’ needs and rights at the centre of digital transformation.

For those in local government considering AI implementation, starting with clear ethical guidelines is essential. Liberty’s framework provides a solid foundation that balances innovation with responsibility. By prioritising ethical considerations from the beginning, local authorities can harness AI’s transformative potential while maintaining the trust and confidence of their communities.