Overcoming public scepticism in tech in public services

Heather Cover-Kus, head of central Government at techUK, looks at how to win the public’s trust, with contributions from Tess Buckley, programme manager for digital ethics and AI safety at techUK.

New ideas often face scepticism

Technology plays a vital role in modernising and enhancing public services, improving efficiency, accessibility, and delivering cost-savings. However, implementing and adopting new technologies in government often faces public scepticism.

Addressing this confidence gap poses challenges, including lack of public understanding, ethical concerns, past implementation failures, and perceptions of powerlessness. To rebuild public trust and ensure equitable technological advancements, governments can bridge information gaps, enhance digital inclusion, and promote transparency in decision-making.

Understanding the trust gap

The relationship between citizens and government technology is nuanced, shaped by a history of both progress and setbacks. Past incidents, such as data security breaches and implementation challenges, have left individuals wary of emerging technological initiatives in the public sector, with broader trust issues in government playing a role in the lack of technology integration.

Privacy concerns remain a critical issue in the trust debate. Many citizens worry about how their personal information is collected, stored, and used within government systems. These concerns extend to fears of potential surveillance overreach, an issue that needs to be addressed with assurance techniques such as open communication and feedback mechanism for transparency.

We may also reflect on the information gap between technology creators and users, as well as the persistent digital divide in our society, as situations that can exacerbate public mistrust. The uneven distribution of technological access and literacy across different communities has created a trust deficit, particularly among marginalised groups.

This disparity not only hinders the equitable implementation of government technology but also perpetuates a cycle of mistrust among those who could potentially benefit most from these advancements.

There’s a clear need for more effective communication channels and collaborative efforts between government entities, industry and the public regarding the development and deployment of new technologies.

Challenges in building trust

To bridge the trust gap in government technology, key challenges include the lack of public understanding, ethical considerations, the impact of past implementation failures and perception of powerlessness.

Above all is the need to enhance public understanding of emerging technologies. The complexity of AI and other advanced systems often leads to misunderstandings and misinformed fears. It is crucial to improve technological fluency among citizens, dispelling myths and fostering a more informed public discourse about these tools and their applications in government services.

Ethical considerations, particularly around bias and fairness in AI systems, present another significant hurdle. The UK Government has adopted a cross-sector and outcome-based framework for regulating AI, underpinned by five core ethical principles: safety, security and robustness, appropriate transparency and explainability, fairness, accountability and governance, and contestability and redress.

These ethical principles have been operationalised through assurance mechanisms and standards, colloquially referred to as tools for trustworthy AI. Developing and implementing ethical frameworks is essential to ensure that government technologies serve all citizens equitably and don’t perpetuate existing societal biases.

Past implementation failures continue to impact the uptake of new initiatives. Overcoming this requires good news stories which showcase successful use cases, ethics by design principles to proactively avoid harm, and establishing clear pathways for public redress and recourse. This means not only delivering effective technological solutions that include ethics by design but also being prepared to address and rectify issues transparently when they arise.

Another challenge is seen in combating the perception of powerlessness among citizens regarding technological advancements in government services. There’s a pressing need to facilitate meaningful citizen involvement and public engagement in the development and deployment processes of technology to support adoption and appropriate use. By doing so, we can foster a sense of ownership and partnership that is crucial for building trust. Addressing these challenges is not just a matter of improving government efficiency; it is about creating a more trustworthy public sector that can effectively serve all citizens.

Overcoming the trust issues

While it is always easier to secure trust early than to rebuild it once it has been broken, the principles are the same in either case. To overcome trust issues, government needs to undertake in clear communication, actively seek public engagement, work to improve digital skills in the community, and have clear accountability for when things go wrong.

Clear communication and public engagement are key elements of securing trust in public sector technology. Explaining which technology is being employed, how it works why it is needed, and being honest about its benefits and risks reflects an open and transparent approach to public sector technology. A notable example of public engagement was the People’s Panel on AI event which was held on the margins of the AI Safety Summit in November 2023.  

The Panel brought together 11 representative members of the public randomly selected by the Sortition Foundation to attend, observe and discuss key events. The session produced a public report giving their verdict on AI and their recommendations to government, industry, civil society and academia for further action. The experience of this participatory decision-making process was reviewed and discussed at techUK’s 2023 Digital Ethics Summit.

While the People’s Panel on AI showcased the fact that you don’t need to be a technical expert to consult on the deployment of public sector technology, having digital skills and digital literacy can indeed help to build trust.

A sound foundation of skills makes the public more willing to engage with the technology.

A study by the University of Manchester shows that a lack of access to skills is one of the main barriers to adopting digital technologies. Conversely, they found that adopters of digital technologies tend to rate higher in both digital and non-digital skills.

Finally, as many newspaper headlines can attest to, technology adoption is not always infallible, and having a clear accountability structure for situations where incidents may occur can help to build trust that they will be managed properly. The accountability for government technology will be balanced between government bodies, regulators and industry.  Knowing that where responsibility lies will help to overcome trust challenges. 

As we discussed in this piece, trust is paramount for the successful implementation of technology in public services. As governments leverage digital solutions to enhance efficiency and accessibility, it is important that they prioritise building and maintaining public confidence to ensure that we achieve the benefits that technology adoption in public services may bring.