Manage your public sector data estate: 3 steps to take to harness the full potential of AI

As the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) continue to expand, public sector organizations are increasingly looking to harness AI to improve operations, enhance services, and safeguard public resources. However, realizing the full potential of AI requires more than just adopting advanced algorithms and technologies. It requires a solid foundation of well-prepared and unified data. 

AI thrives on data. Without clean, organized and integrated structed data, AI solutions cannot function effectively. Taking steps now to prepare your data for AI use will be a good investment of time that will enable you to fully harness the power of AI to enhance decision-making processes and deliver more efficient and effective services to the public.

Here are three steps to take as you look to prepare your data for artificial intelligence. 

Step 1: Unify and organize your data

Government organizations produce vast amounts of data daily, ranging from citizen records and financial transactions to operational logs and security reports. This data is often siloed across various departments and systems.   

Data that isn’t unified or organized can prohibit public sector organizations from unlocking the full potential of AI. Tools like the Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform can help public sector agencies unify their data and use it to gain insights and create AI solutions, whilst minimizing security concerns and governance complexities.

The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform can facilitate AI innovation by:

Helping to unify and manage data: The platform supports data modernization by having the ability to integrate various data sources and tools. The platform ensures that data is easily accessible and manageable, which is crucial for training AI models.

Built-in AI capabilities: The platform includes AI services and tools, such as Azure AI, that simplify the process of building, deploying, and managing AI solutions. 

Scalability: It supports scalable data storage and processing, allowing you to handle large datasets that are required for AI training. 

Advanced analytics: The Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform integrates with Microsoft Fabric which allows public sector leaders to turn large and complex data repositories into actionable, informed, real-time decisions. 

Security and compliance: The platform ensures that your data is secure and compliant with regulations, which is essential for responsible AI development.  

Unifying your data estate can transform public service delivery as it provides a holistic view of public needs and services. By integrating data from various sources, public sector organizations can gain deeper insights into the challenges and opportunities within their communities. This comprehensive understanding enables more targeted and effective public service delivery. For example, by analyzing data on healthcare, education, and social services, public servants can identify trends and allocate resources more efficiently to address pressing issues.

A unified data estate can also help to streamline operations by breaking down data silos and fostering collaboration across departments. This integration facilitates real-time data sharing and decision-making, leading to more agile and responsive government operations. For instance, when data from transportation, public safety, and urban planning departments are combined, it becomes easier to coordinate efforts and optimize resource allocation. This not only improves service delivery but also enhances the overall efficiency of government operations.

One of the most significant benefits of unifying your data estate is the potential for cost reduction. By consolidating data and eliminating redundancies, public sector organizations can reduce storage and maintenance costs. Additionally, a unified data platform enables better data governance and security, minimizing the risk of costly data breaches. Furthermore, the insights gained from integrated data can help identify areas where resources are being underutilized or misallocated, allowing for more strategic budgeting and spending.

Step 2: Determine the focus of your AI innovation

Establishing a clear focus on where AI innovation will be applied within the organization is the next step to consider as you prepare your data for AI. Knowing this will help prioritize efforts and allocate resources efficiently. Consider the following questions:

• Do you want to apply AI to streamline government operations?  
• Do you want to apply AI to enhance citizen services?  
• Do you want to apply AI to protect public funds?  
• Do you want to apply AI to improve cybersecurity?  

Having a clear focus on what the organization wants to do will help determine the specific data that needs to be prepared. Below are some common AI applications in the public sector and their data needs:  

Boost public sector productivity by automating administrative tasks with AI tools

To reduce time on administrative tasks, solutions like Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft 365, Office and SharePoint can be used.

Maximize the benefits of these tools by organizing and tagging your documents, emails, chats, and meeting records. Utilize tools like SharePoint and OneDrive to provide central locations that Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, and others can reference. This organization will ensure that all data is easily retrievable and ready for processing.

Enhance citizen services with real-time, AI-powered government support and services

Empower public sector call/contact centers to deliver services to the public by using AI-powered tools such as Azure AI Bot Service, Dynamics 365 contact center, Copilot for service, Microsoft Entra ID, Microsoft Teams, Power BI and Azure Open AI Service.

Public sector organizations can use Dynamics or Microsoft Fabric to combine citizen records from various departments to create a unified profile that can be referenced. Maintaining detailed records of citizen interactions and service requests will be beneficial as it will provide more data for the tools to analyze and retrieve for full customer support.

Protect public funds by automating audits and detecting fraud with AI-powered insights

Utilize AI technology to automate audits and effectively detect fraud, ensuring the protection of public funds. AI-powered fraud detection solutions like Copilot for Finance, Azure AI Document Intelligence, Azure AI Studio and Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure Open AI Services and Azure AI Search can be used.

Keeping comprehensive audit records and aggregating all financial data into a consolidated view can help AI technology detect fraud and gather additional insights.

Unify data across agencies and accelerate decisions with AI-driven insights at scale

Deliver proactive data-driven decision making using generative AI to surface and analyze agency information at scale with AI solutions like Azure Open AI, Dynamics 365 for Customer Service, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Azure Machine Learning, Power BI and Azure AI Studio.

To provide AI-driven insights at scale comprehensive cross-departmental data is needed. A tool like Microsoft Fabric can be used to unify the data and prepare it for one of the tools listed above. Be sure to establish protocols for data sharing between agencies.

Safeguard government systems and public data with AI driven threat detection and stronger cybersecurity

Achieve enhanced cybersecurity protection by leveraging AI to detect threats and secure public sector systems and public data with AI-driven cybersecurity tools such as Microsoft Security Copilot, Microsoft Incident Response, Microsoft Sentinel Microsoft EntraID, Microsoft Defender and Dynamics 365 for Case Management.

These tools require security logs and threat intelligence data. Collect and categorize all your security logs and integrate any external sources that provide threat data, to provide you with a full view of your digital ecosystem.

Step 3: Ensure Data Security and Compliance

As you prepare your public sector data for AI use, it is vital you take steps to prioritize data security and compliance. As a public sector organization, it’s important that you adhere to relevant laws and regulations like GDPR or CCPA. But in addition to these laws and regulations there are some steps that you can take within your organization to prepare and ensure data security and compliance. You may consider: 

• Forming a dedicated security team to protect AI systems, identify vulnerabilities, and meet regulatory requirements.  
• Allocating resources and budget for IT security  
• Implementing a Zero Trust Strategy

Once these foundational steps are in place, you can focus on specific measures to enhance the security and governance of your AI applications. This involves proactive preparation, continuous discovery, robust protection, and governance to ensure a secure and compliant AI environment.

Prepare

• Discover, classify, and label sensitive data.  
• Ensure appropriate access for AI apps.  
• Continuously assess and improve AI application safety.  

Tools to help you: Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Entra, Azure AI Studio

Discover

• Identify AI risks and address them proactively.  
• Detect non-compliant use and user risk insights.  
• Control shadow AI and vulnerabilities.  

Tools to help you: Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Defender

Protect

• Auto-classify, encrypt, and apply risk-adaptive controls to sensitive data.  
• Implement real-time access control policies for AI apps.  
• Secure data in Copilot across devices.  
• Manage security posture and threat protection for AI apps.  
• Block prompt injection attacks.  

Tools to help you: Microsoft Purview, Microsoft Entra, Microsoft Intune, Microsoft Defender, Azure AI Content Safety

Govern

• Manage AI compliance and detect non-compliant use.  
• Identify hallucinations, protected materials, and harmful content.  

Tools to help you: Microsoft Purview, Azure AI Content Safety

Now you’re ready for AI adoption!

By unifying and organizing data, focusing on specific AI solutions or use cases, and ensuring security and compliance, public sector leaders can unlock the full potential of AI to enhance productivity, improve citizen services, protect public resources, and ensure cybersecurity.

As you embark on this journey, remember that the right data foundation will set the stage for successful AI implementation and drive meaningful outcomes for your organization and the people you serve.

Skilling resources to help you accelerate your AI adoption:

• Build and Modernize AI Applications for Public Sector Services  
• Revolutionize the way you work with Copilot for Microsoft 365  
• Maximizing Microsoft Teams & Microsoft 365 for Public Sector Efficiency  
• Microsoft 365 Copilot documentation  
• Copilot for Microsoft 365 Learning Pathway  
• Introduction to Azure AI Document Intelligence  
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals: Document Intelligence and Knowledge Mining  
• How to Build and Deploy a Chatbot for Public Sector Services  
• Create bots with Microsoft Copilot Studio  
• Introduction to Azure Bot Service and Bot Framework Composer  
• Azure AI Bot Service documentation  
• Get started with Dynamics 365 Contact Center  
• Get started with Microsoft Security Copilot  
• Introduction to Microsoft Sentinel  
• Foundations of a modern public sector security operations center  

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