NiCE Cognigy urges wider AI use across public services

NiCE Cognigy has urged the UK Government to widen access to AI and automation across public services following the Autumn Budget, arguing that departments, councils and other public bodies need tools that can reduce routine administrative work.

Sascha Poggemann, Agentic COO at NiCE Cognigy, set out the company's view on how ministers should approach spending on public services, local government, education and the wider AI economy. He argued that tighter budgets mean the Government must improve service delivery through operational change rather than higher spending.

He said public services should use AI and automation to handle repetitive tasks such as tax queries and council enquiries, allowing staff to focus on more complex work. He also argued that any systems adopted by public bodies should include governance and controls strong enough to meet future standards on AI oversight and sovereignty.

"With little room to manoeuvre, the Government can't spend its way to better public services, so it must help them work smarter. AI and automation can take on routine, transactional work, from tax queries to council enquiries, freeing skilled staff for the complex and sensitive cases that need a person. The Government must ensure that the technology that lets services do more with what they have is within reach of every department, council and organisation it is responsible for. Critically, with the UK's decision on AI and sovereignty still unclear, the technology chosen must have government-scale governance, controls and guardrails built in, so public services can adopt it with confidence and meet whatever standards come next," said Poggemann.

Council services

Local authorities were a major focus of the comments. Poggemann said giving councils more powers would not in itself improve services if staff remained constrained by administrative work and ageing technology systems.

He pointed to routine resident contact such as bin collection issues, council tax questions and permit updates as work that could be handled more efficiently through AI agents. In his view, that would allow council employees to spend more time on homelessness support, social care decisions and other cases requiring judgement and personal contact.

"Much of a council's contact with residents is routine and transactional, such as bin collections, council tax queries and permit updates. When that work lands on skilled staff, it crowds out what only they can do: supporting a resident facing homelessness or working out the right care for someone who can no longer manage at home. AI agents can resolve routine requests quickly, on any channel, including by phone and in a resident's own language, and give staff the context to step in where it matters. The councils that benefit most from devolution will be those that build AI and automation into everyday service in the right ways, not those with the deepest pockets. The Government should make sure every council, large or small, can access the technology to do it," said Poggemann.

Skills pipeline

The comments also linked tax and labour market policy to the need for earlier investment in AI skills. Poggemann said measures that make work more attractive to younger people would not by themselves prepare them for jobs likely to emerge by 2030.

He argued that AI education should begin in schools rather than wait until people enter employment. He said customer service illustrated the shift, with AI reshaping work in a field once often seen as low-skilled and increasing demand for roles including agent designers, AI engineers and people able to exercise strong judgement.

"If the UK wants a workforce ready for 2030, AI skills spending must start in the classroom, not at the point of employment. Existing AI skills funding for young people is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done. AI is moving at lightning speed, and the skills to match are evolving just as quickly. Without that focus, we risk a generation entering the workforce unprepared for the new roles and career paths that will emerge in the next four years. Customer service is a great example. Once regarded as a job for low-skilled workers, customer service in the UK is being transformed by AI-powered experiences, which are already driving a rise in jobs that demand highly skilled people, including agent designers, AI engineers and those with strong judgement," said Poggemann.

He also cited NiCE Cognigy's NexTech programme as an example of industry involvement in early skills development. According to the company, 85% of participants across six cohorts and 614 graduates had chosen to expand their STEM studies in high school, 65% said they intended to pursue careers in high tech and 85% reported increased confidence in technology.

"Early exposure works. Through our NexTech programme, which gives young people hands-on experience of the technology industry, 85% of participants across six cohorts and 614 graduates have chosen to expand their STEM studies in high school, 65% say they intend to pursue careers in high tech and 85% report increased confidence in technology. Government should back this kind of partnership between schools and industry, so that every young person has the chance to see the world they are preparing to enter," said Poggemann.

From research to deployment

Beyond public services and education, Poggemann said the UK should pay more attention to what he called AI production skills. He argued that access to computing infrastructure alone would not be enough if organisations lacked people able to deploy AI systems in real operating environments.

His comments highlighted contact centres as one area where practical deployment skills are already in short supply. He said employers were looking for workers who understand call flows, compliance requirements and model behaviour under pressure from live customer interactions.

"Capacity without an AI production budget just produces idle compute, and the immediate threat to the UK's AI ambitions is a failure to deploy. The gap is already visible in customer service across Europe. Businesses want to put AI agents into live contact centres, but they struggle to find people who understand call flows, compliance and how a model behaves under real customer pressure. That is a different skill from research, and every month it stays scarce, the UK's strength on paper risks becoming a lag in practice," said Poggemann.

He added that the UK should focus less on trying to match the largest global infrastructure providers and more on deployment in regulated sectors where reliability, compliance and trust matter most.

"The UK won't out-compute the hyperscalers, and it doesn't need to. Its advantage is trusted deployment: proving AI works reliably, safely and compliantly in regulated, high-stakes sectors such as financial services and healthcare. To make that count, the Government should shift funding from data science to AI production: agent design, evaluation, guardrails and monitoring. These disciplines decide whether a deployment works in production, and most reskilling programmes underrepresent them," said Poggemann.