According to a new Australian survey conducted by a digital transformation company, 92% of people want more digital government services and a majority (78%) are comfortable with artificial intelligence (AI ) generated services.
Publicis Sapient interviewed more than 5,000 respondents for its digital citizen survey, asking questions about their usage, experience and perspectives of government services.
An even larger group (83%) reported they were comfortable with AI technologies that recalled details of their past interactions with government services.
Services associated with healthcare, the ATO and Centrelink were the top government providers to be called out by people who wanted more or better digital offerings. Other government services that personalised user offerings with information such as employment status and income or past interactions were also welcome by most people (78%).
Senior client partner Ed Bridgeland said the survey showed Australians wanted simple and straightforward access to government services.
“Customer experience expertise and capabilities are emerging as pivotal factors as governments continue their digital transformation journeys,” Bridgeland said.
“Encouraging an increased uptake of digital services is all about honing the user experience, and the drivers for this is personalisation, making services easier to access, simple to understand, and saving citizens’ time,” he said.
Analysis of the survey responses by demographic showed some moderate differences between age groups but by and large, more digital services were welcome by most citizens, irrespective of age.
Millennials were among the most likely of any age group to use government digital services (94%) compared to Boomers (79%); people who worked in the building industry on account of their higher use of employment and family-related services are also high users (61%).
The survey was conducted online in October 2021 and interviewed people from all states, age groups, and various income statuses to ‘broadly reflect’ the population of the country.
Bridgeland noted that ‘life events’ such as purchasing a home, finding work, the death of a loved one, serious illness, or disability diagnosis often resulted in greater interaction with government services. But a significant proportion (32%) of respondents said they were unaware or unable to find relevant services at these critical moments in their lives.
More Millennials and Gen X respondents reported they found life event services helpful, although 15% of Millennials also said that they couldn’t find the services they needed.
“Whilst there has been a lot of great progress in this area over the past few years, there is an opportunity to further build digital services around life events addressing gaps, broadening the service offer and raising awareness,” Bridgeland said.
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