Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Dr. Bill Brantley, President and Chief Learning Officer at Brantley Advanced Social Sciences Applications. Connect with Bill on LinkedIn.
What I’m Reading: “The Recursive Mind: The Origins of Human Language, Thought, and Civilization” by Michael C. Corballis
What I’m Watching: Star Trek Discovery (the final season).
What I’m Listening To: Paul Giamatti’s Chinwag with Stephen Asma
Innovation from inside an organization, or intrapreneurship, is a powerful way to create change and progress. In government agencies, where innovation can sometimes be hindered by bureaucracy and hierarchy, creating a culture of intrapreneurship is essential for being agile and responsive to the changing needs of citizens. Using AI-powered no-code/low-code tools offer a unique chance for government employees to show their creativity and drive transformation from within. Drawing from the article “How Corporate ‘Intrapreneurs’ Can Harness the Power of AI,” let’s look at how government agencies can promote intrapreneurship using these advanced technologies.
Keeping Up with AI Technology: Government intrapreneurs, like those in the private sector, need to keep up with the latest developments in AI. Government agencies can offer ongoing training and exposure to AI technologies, making sure that employees know the possible uses and challenges of AI-based tools. Workshops, online courses, and partnerships with AI experts can help employees learn the basics of AI and how it relates to their work.
Ethical Considerations: Government agencies must follow strict rules and be ethical when using AI solutions. Intrapreneurs should learn about internal AI rules and policies to follow the law and protect data. Also, knowing national and state-level AI laws is important for good innovation. Government agencies can create AI ethics groups or hire AI ethics staff to help employees deal with ethical issues from using AI.
Finding Easy Opportunities: AI tools that require no or little coding allow employees from different backgrounds to create AI-based solutions without advanced coding skills. Government innovators can find easy targets—tasks or processes that can be improved or automated using AI technology. For example, AI-enabled chatbots can simplify citizen requests, while predictive analytics can improve resource management and decision-making processes. By showing clear advantages through easy opportunities, innovators can gain backing for wider AI initiatives within their agencies.
Working Together on AI: AI needs people from different fields and skills to work together. Government agencies can help by creating places where employees can talk, share, and work on AI projects. Teams with both technical and non-technical staff can use their different views to make AI solutions that fit the specific problems faced by government agencies.
Establishing Specific Objectives: Government intrapreneurs should have specific goals and measures of success before starting AI projects. Whether they aim to improve service quality, enhance decision-making quality, or optimize resource use, having specific objectives ensures that AI initiatives are consistent with organizational goals. Furthermore, intrapreneurs should perform comprehensive risk evaluations and stakeholder assessments to foresee potential difficulties and reduce opposition to change. By showing a clear ROI and addressing issues proactively, intrapreneurs can gain support from senior leaders and stakeholders.
We will look at a small example of how government leaders can use AI-powered no-code/low-code tools to enable innovation in an agency.
Background: A fictional country’s Department of Social Services (DSS) had problems in handling citizen requests and adjusting resources to changing social needs. DSS decided to use AI technology to help its employees become intrapreneurs and innovate with AI-powered no-code/low-code tools.
Initiative: DSS started an “AI Innovate” program to promote innovation and teamwork among its staff. The program taught AI basics, ethics, and how to use AI tools that require little or no coding. Employees from different fields, like social workers, data analysts, and admins, joined and added their insights to AI projects.
Execution: Sarah, a social worker who is enthusiastic about using technology to enhance service delivery, suggested an AI-powered chatbot project to simplify citizen queries. With a no-code AI platform that the program recommended, Sarah created a prototype chatbot that could respond to common questions and guide citizens to appropriate resources. Even though Sarah had little coding background, she enjoyed the no-code interface that was easy and convenient to use, allowing her to concentrate on developing dialogues and improving the chatbot’s efficiency.
Results: Citizen Assist, an AI chatbot, was tested on DSS’s website, where it helped citizens find information and support. In the first month, it answered over 500 questions, saving time and resources for DSS staff and more difficult cases. Citizens gave positive feedback on the chatbot’s speed and correctness, which improved their confidence in DSS’s service.
Outcome: The Citizen Assist project showed other employees how AI-powered solutions can help solve different problems within DSS. Teams from different functions worked together on projects such as using predictive analytics to allocate resources or using sentiment analysis to assess social program impact. The AI Innovate program sparked organizational change, enabling employees to use AI technology innovatively to improve service quality and respond to the changing needs of citizens.
Conclusion: The Department of Social Services became a center of innovation and excellence in serving citizens by using AI-powered no-code/low-code tools and encouraging an intrapreneurial culture. AI showed its ability to create positive change in government agencies and enable employees to make a difference in society through initiatives like Citizen Assist.
Using AI-powered no-code/low-code tools, government agencies can enable intrapreneurs to innovate and transform. They can do this by training, raising ethical awareness, finding easy successes, collaborating, and setting clear goals. This will help government intrapreneurs improve operations and services and become agents of positive change in their organizations and communities.