How AI can help public sector HR teams focus more on people and less on admin

Public organisations will face dilemmas over risk and governance when seeking to use AI technology.

High cost of technology, need for technical expertise, and cultural tendency for control and safety, mean that AI presents serious and fundamental headaches for executive teams.

But what if AI could be the answer in finally freeing up councils from being mired in low value, transactional processes?

Using AI to develop the workforce

People related costs form a large portion of public sector expenditure. At the same time, local authorities continue to face the financial squeeze, whilst facing pressure to deliver essential services.

Better utilizing the workforce is therefore key to survival and future success.

Our People and HR Teams are in place to focus on the human side of business, and help them to flourish. With the rise in prominence of strategic HR over the last ten years, many are more empowered in pursuing modern and progressive workforce propositions.

The reality is that they are often stuck in high volume manual processes. Constant requests for re-grading, drafting job descriptions, and balancing the need to be useful business partners with challenging departmental units take up much needed energy and resource.

Modernizing HR practices might feel like scaling a mountain, especially when public sector organizations are famously risk-averse. Tools like AI are often met with skepticism:

• Will it really work?
• Is it secure?
• What if it introduces bias?

At the same time, it’s likely that many staff are already experimenting with free tools like ChatGPT to simplify their work. This raises another layer of questions: How do we ensure consistency? Is this safe? And are we missing an opportunity to formalize smarter working practices?

Here’s the bold truth: Avoiding AI could pose an even bigger risk by holding back modernization.

Why AI is a necessity, not a luxury – Changing culture and transforming for success takes time, care, and commitment

The public sector isn’t known for being fast-moving when it comes to adopting new technology, but we’ve reached a tipping point.

The status quo of relying on manual processes for critical HR functions isn’t just inefficient. It’s costly, slow, and demoralizing for teams that want to focus on people, not admin.

If we are to generate more dynamic, agile, and accountability led cultures in local government, that enable our people to raise their perspective and spend more time on high value tasks, then it needs time. Time from genuine business partners who can work deep in departments, and coach leaders through long lasting change to perspectives and behaviours.

For this to happen, HR teams need to achieve more with less, allowing them to shift their focus from repetitive tasks to strategic, people-focused work such as:

• Building stronger workplace cultures that attract and retain top talent.
• Developing leadership pipelines for the future.
• Supporting ambitious transformation programs with a people-first approach.

The real risk of avoiding AI

Public sector organizations are understandably cautious when it comes to adopting AI. Questions about accuracy, ethics, and security often dominate the conversation.

But here’s the irony: avoiding AI could increase your risk.

• Sticking to outdated, manual processes not only drains time and resources but also leads to inconsistency and delays.
• By not adopting tools to work smarter, organizations are left playing catch-up while private-sector competitors surge ahead in areas like talent attraction and retention.
• And as staff experiment with free or unregulated tools, the lack of oversight could open up more vulnerabilities than formalizing an AI-driven approach.

The public sector doesn’t need to leap blindly into AI adoption, but waiting too long to act could mean falling even further behind.

AI: Keys to unlocking HR’s full potential

When HR teams spend less time on admin and more time on people, everything changes. Relationships improve. Cultures thrive. Organizations attract better talent

The tools are here, but it will take bold leadership to adopt them. Public sector HR has the potential to lead the way—proving that modernization doesn’t have to come at the expense of values like fairness, transparency, or trust.

But are we ready in terms of skills, culture, standardisation of using/governance, and commitment from the organisation?

I believe that several conditions need to be true:

• Chief Technology Officers who are clear on their roadmap, ambitious enough to embrace the right technology, and focus on quick wins so the workforce can see the value of AI.
• Clear direction to the workforce on governance and what the ‘right’ use of AI looks like.
• Many teams will need to focus on their digital and AI skills, even in roles that are traditionally not associated with digital.
• Appointing and developing ‘AI champions’ is a good way to start and to help demonstrate the specific use cases of AI and increase confidence.
• A pivot to more mature working practices that draw on a highly skilled workforce. This is likely to drive a need for more attractive pay or employee propositions, if we are to achieve a workforce that can leverage the rapidly changing technology landscape.

What’s your take?

Public sector HR teams face real challenges such as tight budgets, mounting workloads, and cautious decision-making. But AI offers a chance to do more with less and focus on what really matters: people.

How is your organization approaching the adoption of AI? Are you seeing tools that help your HR team thrive?

Tom Davies

The views and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer, colleagues, or any other organization I am affiliated with. The content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. While I strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, all information is presented “as is” without any guarantees.