There is no doubt that we are now in the age of the artificial intelligence, or precisely the Digital Age. Indeed, in scholarship, scholars are already signaling the arrival of a post-human world within which machines and digital technologies would have taken over most of the intelligences that are usually associated with humans.
Whether there will be such a world when machines would challenge human intelligence is still a moot point. What is obvious now is the rate at which artificial intelligences are deployed in the performance of several cognitive functions that are traditionally associated with human capacities. From Siri and Alexa to the driverless bicycle and car, and from social media algorithms to ChatGPT, AI is gradually getting launched in several areas of human endeavor—education, manufacturing, architecture, entertainment, governance, healthcare, sports, and many more.
It is definitely inevitable that public administration has to confront and engage with the utility of AI in achieving performance and efficiency. The pioneering innovation in both AI and public administration has already been done by Herbert Simon, 1978 Nobel Laureate, especially in his research on organisational knowledge, decision making and human performance.
For example, in his theory of administrative behavior, Simon argues that since decision makers and managers are not perfect beings, public administrators cannot be expected to make perfect decisions and choices. On the contrary, this is because they do not have the capacity to think and know everything all at once at any given point. The limitations to their thinking and knowledge imply that they work within this “bounded rationality.”
Thus, public managers make administrative choices that are “satisficing”—they are the smart choice not because they are the best ones, but because they are the most satisfactory given the available limitations.
Within this Herbert Simon’s understanding of administrative behaviour and decision-making, we can then begin to imagine how the limitation can be reduced through the deployment of AI. In other words, how does AI intervene in administrative and managerial operations in terms of improving operational efficiency, facilitating informed and evidence-based decision-making, efficient delivery of personalise public services, resource use optimisation and therefore organisational productivity, while promoting efficient, secure, and citizen-centred and modernised systems and work processes?
Public administration 2.0 is the forerunner especially in the application and deployment of technologies in fast tracking administrative and managerial processes and operations. Through the use of data analytics, and especially user-generated content and interactivity in Web 2.0, public administration and the public sector is better enhanced in terms of citizen-engagement in the administration of government; decision-making is facilitated through data analytics, open data that makes for transparency; and administrative processes that are streamlined for efficiency through the use technologies.
With the addition and application of AI, the administration of the public sector, and most significantly of the public service, is provided with a powerful tool for transforming the public sector into a mechanism for effectively and efficiently delivering democratic governance. Let me outline a few of such possibilities.
The first possibility is in the area of managing administrative routines and processes, by articulating heuristic models that reduce costs and man-hour, especially in terms of lowering labour and operational costs that have a significant bearing on performance and national productivity. For example, through AI-based virtual assistants, administrators can adequately manage their calendars, book appointments and send reminders. AI document management system streamlines document scanning, organisation, storage and retrieval processes.
Second, AI provides the possibility of stimulating several scenario modelling tools that public sector administrators can utilise in simulating and evaluating various courses of actions and potential outcomes through the deployment of predictive analytics that assist in forecasting future trends, risks and opportunities.
This implies therefore that administrators and managers are able to use AI tools to enhance strategic intelligence for problem-solving decision-making that anticipates challenges, gets early warning signals, and proactively devises strategies to mitigate risks or take advantage of emerging trends.
Third, AI facilitates a near-seamless workplace efficiency, communication and team relations. In using AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants, any public administrator and manager is able to significantly inject administrative sanity into the workplace to resolve complex cooperative matters, instigating effective communication, and evaluate inefficient patterns, processes and practices for critical review and improvement.
AI also assists in facilitating seamless interaction among team members through the possibility of remote work dynamics, messaging, video conferencing and file sharing as enabled by such applications as Zoom, Slack and Microsoft Teams, etc.
The fourth fundamental possibility generated by AI in the workplace is the enhancement of performance management. There is the possibility of enhancing data-rooted policy intelligence and decisions through using AI to generate reports and dashboards information around key performance indicators, trends and anomalies.
The automation of workflow management goes a long way in harnessing AI-powered project management tools that activate task assignment, resource allocation, the planning and tracking of projects for updates, and the identification of systemic and human-induced impediments and bottlenecks.
AI can also enable regulatory governance through the automating of compliance processes and standards monitored in real-time to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and organisational policies. This proactive approach can significantly reduce the risk of compliance violations, enhance organisational resilience and trustworthiness.
The proactive initiatives of the Tinubu administration—through the Ministry of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy—are critical and commendable in trying to fast track Nigeria’s functional participation in the global AI ecosystem.
We have the development of the national AI strategy and roadmap, from the 2023 Data Protection Act to the signing of the Bletchley Declaration on AI, that situate Nigeria within the capability readiness to deploy the best in global and national AI developments and initiatives that will energise governance and public institutions.
What is needed more is the political will and the institutional reform frameworks to push the bounds of the capacity of AI to impact public administration and the public sector in Nigeria. One most immediate point of engagement for AI tools is Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign. One need not wonder too much why this is so.
To be continued tomorrow.
Prof. Olaopa is Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission.
