Public Sector Focus: Government of Catalonia's Jordi Escalé Castelló

Robert Woolliams

April 29, 2016

3 Min Read
AIBusiness recently interviewed Jordi Escalé Castelló, Chief Information Officer for the Government of Catalonia, to explore the implications of AI on the public sector and its services. 
At The AI Summit in London on 5 May, Jordi will discuss the dynamic impact of AI in improving public sector services, looking at where the public sector is with AI today, and where is it going next. 
 AIBusiness caught up with Jordi to find out his views on AI’s impact on business and the challenges the public sector faces in adopting AI, looking ahead to his presentation at The AI Summit.

 

jordi-escale

Jordi Escalé Castelló, CIO, Government of Catalonia

 

  1. How do you believe AI will impact business overall and in what ways?

AI will impact business for sure. Information Technologies revolutionized markets, companies, management and social relationships: AI will be the second wave.

Speed and global access are adjectives that describe business management nowadays. These two words are provided mainly by technology on the first step, but also in business design. New technology, business procedure design, and the big data scenario mixed with IoT will introduce new business management. I’m referring to AI solutions which will change business in many ways: analysis, decision making, strategy, target, logistics and marketing.

AI will also impact in commerce, trade and industrial processing.

 

  1. What do you think are the main challenges in adopting AI technologies, from machine learning through to image recognition, in the public sector?

Culture and Change Management are the first challenges. Let me explain: public administration has to focus on client – citizens – being proactive and offering reliable services. This is only possible if the whole of Public Administration believes in that and takes the decision and actions to do it, which means reorganizing its IT services and managing data as indicators to be measured. That seems easy, but it’s not. Public administration is a big ship to be moved towards this new IT revolution.

But Culture and Management are not alone –we need specialists on it, people making politicians understand how important is it to optimize decision-making through data instead of sensations, opinions or ideas.

 

  1. Which areas of public sector services do you feel could particularly improve with the implementation of AI?

 It will depend on the IT scenario of each sector. I see many public services that could be improved depending on its IT maturity level. Some examples include Transparency, Emergencies, Health, Security, Public work, Education, Economy (grants policy), Environmental management.

Business Intelligence will be one of the most important challenges to work on public administration in many different ways: design, implementation, data management and corporate culture.

 

  1. What does the short- and long-term future hold for AI in the public sector?

I think that AI will change business management very fast, but I can’t talk about it in the short and long term because it may be like a revolution: happening on many levels and very fast.

The public sector has to be in there, because people, companies, business will be. AI will help public administration to be more efficient, effective, transparent, faster, optimized, cheaper to citizens and more proactive, but none of this will happen if public administration managers and politicians don’t change their minds.

 

At The AI Summit, Jordi Escalé Castelló will be delivering his keynote: The dynamic impact of AI in improving public sector services.

The AI Summit is the world’s first event dedicated to Artificial Intelligence for the business world. For more information, and to join us on 5 May at the Four Seasons Hotel, London, visit: theaisummit.com
AISummit print screen

 

For the latest news and conversations about AI in business, follow us on Twitter @Business_AI and LinkedIn – AIBusiness

 

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