Artificial Intelligence will drive a tide of digital transformation that will challenge governments’ ability to maintain trust and authority with citizens unless access to online information is rapidly made easier and more inclusive.
Practice Director, Digital Strategy, APAC, for Adobe, John Mackenney, said recent Australian Government investments in enhancing digital public service delivery were making a difference, but many users still had to navigate multiple sites to obtain information.
“Many citizens still believe information is inconsistent, unreliable, and inaccessible,’’ Mr Mackenney said.
Mr Mackenney said while the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence made it imperative for governments to better engage citizens, if harnessed responsibly AI could also unlock some of the solutions.
One of the key challenges was the need to continue consolidating sites through a single “front door’’ to end the current situation where people needed to search multiple sites to find the information they were looking for.
With disadvantaged people mostly accessing the internet through mobile devices, mobile access and speed had to be dramatically improved.
“In a world where the interfaces are changing and the pace of transformation is so fast, government needs to act now, or the risk is people are going to be getting information from other sources,’’ he said.
Mr Mackenney’s comments come as Adobe’s second annual Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark report found 90% of Australians ranked digital as their preferred channel for accessing public services.
But nearly two thirds (65%) of citizens said they visited six or more websites before finding that they needed.
Nearly three quarters of citizens (72%) expected improvements to government sites, led by accessibility features.
Half of citizens disproportionately impacted by problems gaining access to sites said they found public information was hard to find.
Australia tops rankings but customer experience flatlines
The report, which examined the websites of 120 government departments across six countries, said Australia had made overall gains in the websites of state and territory agencies with a world-leading overall rating of 68.4 out of 100 in 2023, compared with 58.8 out of 100 a year earlier.
The benchmark report examined customer experience, such as ease of access to self-service and tailored experiences; site performance, including mobile site responsiveness and speed; and digital social equity such as language translation and accessibility for low literacy levels.
Digital social equity improved 19.2 points to 76.2 out of 100, driven by a rise in site accessibility and better language scores achieved through better assisted translation and interpreter services alongside machine translation capabilities.
Language features impacted the nearly one million Australians who don’t speak English at home and the 44% of the population with lower literacy levels.
Mr Mackenney said there was a need to start measuring elements such as site performance and findability and some of the broader features around inclusion.
“Otherwise, there is a real risk that you will leave a lot of Australians behind,’’ he said.
Adobe had been working with government departments to embed the Benchmark framework and effectively, measure, track and enhance digital equity. It was also open to sharing the benchmarking results for individual agencies.
The Australian Government’s myGov site received the top digital social equity score because of the availability of advanced accessibility features, including the integration with screen readers, the ability to adjust font. Sizes and toggle high and low contrast.
Australia’s customer experience result remained little changed on the previous year.
Departments and agencies that had moved to a single digital presence with content organised around citizen needs scored higher.
While site performance improved 10 points to 63.2 out of 100, it remained the lowest performance metric for Australian government sites, driven by mobile page loading speeds that were half that available on desktop.
Across all departments surveyed in the six countries examined, the top two sites were found to be Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
New Zealand’s digital performance uneven
In New Zealand, the Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark report found government sites were improving their online public service delivery, but digital performance remained uneven.
The report found 50% of citizens used a mobile phone as the primary device to access government sites. Nearly one quarter (23%) of citizens who were digitally excluded had interactions with government sites of more than 30 minutes or more just to fill out forms.
The total value of providing digital equity for those that were currently excluded was put at $NZ737 million a year.
New Zealand’s overall benchmark score rose to 61.2 out of 100 from 58 out of 100 in 2022 but its digital service delivery remained below the global average of 64.17 out of 100.
New Zealand’s digital social equity improved but customer experience and site performance scores remained relatively flat.
Mobile customer experience scores fell 9% and the search authority of New Zealand sites fell 25% based on the findability of information. The report said customer experience scores were constrained by the mobile experience, which was below that of desktop.
Digital self-service was one of the areas ranked lowest by users in the absence of non-assisted support. Challenges to completing, submitting, and tracking application forms and limited search filters and functionality were also dragged down customer experience.
Site performance was constrained by the fact that loading speeds in 2023 were 5% lower than in 2022. There was also little improvement in the availability of preferred language options.
Digital Social Equity improved based on an 18% improvement in site accessibility. But the availability of languages other than English remained limited and the readability of sites fell over the year.
Mr Mackenney said both Australia and New Zealand had done a positive job in focusing on customer experience.
But while there had been an investment in Australia in consolidating sites though myGov, and every Australian state trying to create a single “front door’’ entry portal, New Zealand remained fragmented.
Mr Mackenney said governments would need to continue moving quickly on further consolidating sites because AI would only make dealing with citizens more complex.
‘’There is a risk of deep fakes,’’ he said. “Today, if you search for information on taxation, about 50% of the links you get on Google aren’t going to the Australian Taxation Office, they are going to other websites.
“That today’s environment. What is going to look like if people are asking a question from a chat engine? Government’s ability to be able to influence and advise and do that and maintain trust is complex today and is only going to get more complex in the future.’’
AI could drive significant gains
Mr Mackenney said while Generative AI presented challenges, it also held the potential for significant gains if embraced responsibly.
He said AI could help unlock long-held ambitions for more personalised or tailored government services.
“All of a sudden we will be able to provide a different interface with someone with a disability or easier to read content for someone with low literacy levels,’’ he said.
“Or multi-lingual content for Australians who don’t speak English in their home.
“I think from an accessibility and inclusion perspective there are huge opportunities there,’’ he said.
The Global Government Digital Performance and Inclusion Benchmark report also flagged significant potential advances from the effective use of Generative AI.
Enhancing digital performance could save people a day a year from not having to search difference sites for information. Helping those who were disproportionately disadvantaged from current shortcomings would also have a disproportionate upside, the GGDPI said.
A tailored experience could also boost uptake of essential public services when they were needed, avoiding costs to manage follow-on issues.
Easier, simpler, and more accessible processes could drive compliance with rules and regulations and reduce costly administrative errors.
