How might we connect and automate governance to overcome capacity gaps and gain efficiency and learning?
How might we connect and automate governance processes to overcome capacity gaps and gain efficiency and learning?
Traditional ways of tackling problems in the public sector are being challenged in an era of rapid change (Bjarnason et al., 2024), while skills shortages in education systems remain pronounced in many low- and middle-income countries (UNESCO, 2024).
EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory is exploring how ministries of education can streamline bureaucracy – which means simplifying administrative procedures to ensure that information, decisions, approvals, and resource allocations move more efficiently through the system.
This week, in Issue No. 24 of the #WaypointWednesday, we spotlight emerging roles that could appear in future governments, the use of AI digital twins, and new forms of AI-augmented collective intelligence.
Early signals
AI-enabled digital twins
Digital replicas of entire learning environments or systems can be used to model new initiatives, predicting outcomes and risks to support data-driven, optimised decision-making. (Ağca, 2023; D’Rozario, 2025)
- Indonesia – Skyral: Digital twin technology revealed policy insights that could reduce stunting in children 50x faster than conventional interventions, by enabling government officials to test thousands of scenarios across nutrition, education and healthcare, and precisely monitor multiple interventions simultaneously. (TechUK, 2025)
AI-augmented collective intelligence in governance and policymaking
We’re seeing tools that blend human judgement with machine-supported analysis in an effort to support governments to tap into wider insight in efficient ways.
- Global – Polis: Polis combines human intelligence with machine learning to help groups understand where people agree or disagree on an issue. The vTaiwan community is using the Polis tool to collect public opinions on AI, identifying the most divisive topics for further, in-person discussions. (Friedrich Naumann Foundation, 2024; Polis)
- USA – Policy Synth: In this study, researchers present a toolkit that merges AI agents with expert crowdsourcing to accelerate and scale public-sector problem-solving. The authors aim to demonstrate how institutions can generate evidence-based policy suggestions more efficiently than traditional approaches. (Bjarnason et al., 2024)
Envisioning possible future roles in government
If AI transforms bureaucracy, new roles will emerge. Ministries can use foresight to imagine and prepare for possible scenarios rather than be disrupted by them. (Habegger, 2009; UK Government Office for Science, 2022)
- Global – Deloitte’s future public service personas: Speculative personas for six key government functions, including a “bridgebuilder” and a “mission rapid prototyper”, illustrate what AI-transformed versions of various government jobs could look like in the future. (Deloitte, 2025)
Reflections:
- Automation bias, whereby humans prefer not to second guess the results of automated decision aides, even when they have the ultimate responsibility and accountability to take the final decision, is a major concern as decision-making tools become more complex. Furthermore, over time, actors will have less opportunity to practice and strengthen their professional discernment, making them more likely to go along with AI decisions. Making best use of AI for civil service reform will require upskilling strategic analytical capabilities. (Broecke, 2023)
- Using AI in governance can shift authority from public deliberation to data-driven systems. Prioritising efficiency or “objectivity”, this approach often assumes complex social issues can be solved through optimisation rather than democratic judgment. As decisions increasingly reflect algorithmic outputs rather than civic reasoning, citizens may become further removed from processes that affect them, especially when these systems are opaque or difficult to contest. This can narrow the space for political contestation, ethical debate, and the valuing of lived experience.
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We’d love to hear from you! What’s been shaping your thinking on AI? Drop your thoughts (and reading recommendations) in the comments. Explore more from EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory.
EdTech Hub’s AI Observatory is made possible with the support of the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
