What will increasing automation mean for civil service leaders of the future?

In our first Government podcast, Matt Jones is joined by Alex Thomas from the Institute for Government and Jeegar Kakkad from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to explore the following critical questions on the use of technology in the future of public service delivery:

• will we see more automation in Government? 
• what would an increase in automation mean for the people who work on operating our public services
• what should a public service leader be thinking about as they’re bringing AI into their organisation? 
• what are the risks? 

Listen to our podcast:

Spotify, Amazon music and Deezer.

View a transcript of this podcast here

About our host:

Matt Jones, Partner and expert in Government and Public Sector at Baringa

Matt Jones is a partner in Baringa’s government team, focused on productivity and efficiency improvements. When Baringa launched its government practice, Matt refocused to apply his operational process and people transformation skills to the civil service. He’d found his niche and loves the variety moving between the likes of the Metropolitan Police, the Cabinet Office and HMRC: their mandates, culture and challenges are so wide-ranging. His proudest moment to date was driving change within the Land Registry. 

About our guests:

Alex Thomas, Programme Director at the Institute for Government

Alex leads the Institute’s work on the civil service and policy making. He heads the team researching civil service reform, government accountability, better policy making and looking at the effectiveness of government departments. Alex is a regular commentator on radio, television and in the print media. Alex joined the IfG in January 2020, having previously been a director in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), leading teams working on Brexit and animal and plant health. Before that, Alex was principal private secretary to Sir Jeremy Heywood, cabinet secretary and head of the civil service. Alex worked in the Department of Health from 2015–16, the Cabinet Office on constitutional and electoral matters from 2010–15, and in Defra from 2003–10 on a variety of environment, climate change and agricultural policies.

Jeegar Kakkad, Director of Government Innovation at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Jeegar is an expert in progressive policy, with an emphasis on industrial strategy, financial-market reform and innovation. His work focuses on helping governments to deliver growth and transform public services.