09 Apr 2024
by Neil Gillies

Gen AI and legacy IT: A public sector guide 

Generative AI has shone a spotlight on barriers presented by legacy IT. With growing opportunities for savings and value creation, the public sector needs ways to harness it securely, ethically, and efficiently.   

Importantly, efforts to tackle legacy IT don’t need to involve ‘big bang’ digital transformation. There are straightforward, iterative steps that deliver short-term gains and long-term value.  

Let’s look at these opportunities, including:  

  • How to balance effort, risk and return in identifying generative AI projects  

  • Legacy data barriers to overcome  

  • Don’ts and Do’s for efficient, cost-effective data transformation  

Balancing effort, risk and return with generative AI  

Generative AI isn’t ‘all or nothing’. Different adoption levels require different amounts of effort and deliver different returns.   

So where should UK public sector organisations start, given that effort/risk/return equation?  

Prioritising public sector use cases  

You can gain lower-level benefits almost immediately with less complicated use cases, like internal meeting summarisation and citizen engagement transcription and translation.  

Other use cases with higher returns in terms of efficiency gains and citizen experience improvements generally require greater effort and investment in data platforms. These include:   

  • Operational efficiency and resource management – automated document processing / data analytics for performance insights / fleet management optimisation / claims processing automation   

  • Financial management – debt collection and fraud detection / benefit and council tax assessments  

  • Citizen service and engagement – digital assistants / email and call management / accessibility and inclusivity by design  

  

The legacy data barrier – Data Quality Matters   

However, to get started with these use cases, you need to tackle certain legacy IT barriers, specifically on the data side. After all, generative AI output quality is only as good as the data foundation.  

In most public sector organisations, data is held in disparate locations, multiple formats, and many technologies. The inability to extract useable data has been cited as one of the greatest barriers to process modernisation and innovation across government.   

So how do you start consolidating and transforming that legacy data estate?  

Don’ts and Do’s for an efficient, cost-effective data transformation   

Let’s start with the Don’ts: 

Don’t think of it as a Pandora’s Box. No matter how fragmented and complex the legacy data estate is, you can make progress without untangling everything at once.  

At the same time, don’t ignore legacy systems deemed to be ‘working okay’. Often, these only get enough investment to keep them running. This isn’t sustainable – you risk creating much more complex, expensive challenges down the road.  

Now, let’s look at the Do’s: 

Think about incremental wins. The goal is to continuously improve while safeguarding ‘business as usual’ operations and meeting user needs.  

Best-practice steps for this incremental legacy transformation are:  

  • Focus on users to minimise disruption – build support with users and enable effective change activities  

  • Take a front-end-led approach – making back-end changes without impacting users  

  • Identify opportunities for change – automate manual tasks and remove redundant processes  

  • Analyse legacy – including dependencies and requirements  

  • Highlight dependencies – to support longer lead times for change  

  • Clearly articulate boundaries and dependencies – between legacy and new  

 

You also need to embed the appropriate data strategy, encompassing governance, operations, and culture. This is essential for compliance and security. It also drives incremental transformation by protecting against a reversion to old approaches. To achieve this, you need to address 6 key areas: 

  • Data transformation vision and strategy – what the organisation is trying to achieve with data  

  • Governance approach – how the organisation defines and enforces data policies, controls, processes and standards  

  • Information operations – management of data in the end-to-end lifecycle, including how, when and by whom it’s created  

  • Organisational culture – the structures, roles, and accountability to manage data and enable it to be a collective responsibility  

  • Insights and visualisation – defining use cases that drive value from the data, as well as measuring and demonstrating governance progress and its impact   

  • Enterprise architecture – the ‘master plan’ for your data-driven technology, guiding development by prescribing goals and requirements  

 

A legacy data estate shouldn’t hold you back  

Barriers from a legacy data estate are manageable (and addressing them is more straightforward than you might think). Just keep these two points in mind:  

  • Plan an incremental transformation – so you embed best-practice data governance and drive continuous change with longer-term benefits   

  • Leverage proven solutions instead of building from scratch – solutions like data platform as a service not only save time and budget, but streamline security and compliance  

With these ideas underpinning your approach, you can hit the ground running with generative AI, achieving more for less across operations and citizen services.   


Heather Cover-Kus

Heather Cover-Kus

Head of Central Government Programme, techUK

Heather is Head of Central Government Programme at techUK, working to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government.

Prior to joining techUK in April 2022, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat.  She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.

Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.

Email:
[email protected]
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cover-kus-ba636538

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Ellie Huckle

Ellie Huckle

Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK

Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.

The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!

Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.

When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!

Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
020 7331 2015
Twitter:
@techUK,@techUK
Website:
www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
LinkedIn:
https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx,https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx

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Annie Collings

Annie Collings

Programme Manager, Cyber Security and Central Government, techUK

Annie joined techUK as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023. In this role, she supports the Cyber Security SME Forum, engaging regularly with key government and industry stakeholders to advance the growth and development of SMEs in the cyber sector.

Before joining techUK, Annie was an Account Manager at a specialist healthcare agency, where she provided public affairs support to a wide range of medical technology clients. She also gained experience as an intern in both an MP’s constituency office and with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed. Annie holds a degree in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.

Email:
[email protected]
Twitter:
anniecollings24
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-collings-270150158/

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Austin Earl

Austin Earl

Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK

Austin joined techUK’s Central Government team in March 2024 to launch a workstream within Education and EdTech.

With a career spanning technology, policy, media, events and comms, Austin has worked with technology communities, as well as policy leaders and practitioners in Education, Central and Local Government and the NHS.

Cutting his teeth working for Skills Matter, London’s developer community hub, Austin then moved to GovNet Communications where he launched Blockchain Live and the Cyber Security and Data Protection Summit. For the last 3 years he has worked with leaders in Education across the state and independent schools sectors, from primary up to higher education, with a strong research interest in technology and education management.

Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
07891 743 932
Website:
www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spencer-earl/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spencer-earl/

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Ella Gago-Brookes

Ella Gago-Brookes

Team Assistant, Markets, techUK

Ella joined techUK in November 2023 as a Markets Team Assistant, supporting the Justice and Emergency Services, Central Government and Financial Services Programmes.  

Before joining the team, she was working at the Magistrates' Courts in legal administration and graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2022.  Ella attained an undergraduate degree in History and Politics, and a master's degree in International Relations and Security Studies, with a particular interest in studying asylum rights and gendered violence.  

In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, watching true crime documentaries, travelling, and making her best attempts to become a better cook.  

Email:
[email protected]

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Authors

 Neil Gillies

Neil Gillies

Business Development Director, Kainos