Exploring AI’s Transformative Potential in the Public Sector
Tyler Tech Podcast Episode 108, Transcript
The Tyler Tech Podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Each episode highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give the podcast a listen today and subscribe.
Show Notes:
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, we examine how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the public sector, enabling governments to improve service delivery, streamline operations, and make data-driven decisions. As AI becomes more prominent in public sector discussions, it offers a unique opportunity to unlock efficiencies and enhance community engagement.
Elliot Flautt, director of state data solutions at Tyler Technologies, provides a thoughtful perspective on the practical applications of AI in government. From automating routine tasks to improving resource allocation and advancing accessibility, Elliot highlights how public agencies are leveraging AI to better serve residents while maintaining accountability and transparency.
The discussion also touches on the importance of ethical implementation, collaboration between public agencies and technology providers, and how governments can start small to realize measurable impacts. Elliot emphasizes that AI’s potential lies not in replacing human input but in enhancing productivity and enabling informed decision-making.
This episode also celebrates inspiring stories from public sector organizations making a tangible difference in their communities through impactful technology. These examples of innovation highlight the possibilities when purpose-driven solutions meet government needs. For Tyler clients, applications are now open for the Tyler Excellence Awards, which honor organizations driving meaningful change with forward-thinking approaches. Submit your application here. You can also read more about excellence in the public sector below:
And learn more about the topics discussed in this episode with these resources:
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Transcript:
Elliot Flautt: We’ve seen a lot of kind of our cultural conversations around OpenAI, ChatGPT, and these have really kind of entered the public, conversation. So, everybody is kind of wondering, how can we see the cool advancements that have been happening in in more of the private sector now start to be applied to the public sector, and our public sector leaders are really working very quickly and very diligently to impact, and effectuate some of those changes using generative AI, in the public space.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, it’s the Tyler Tech Podcast, your source for insightful conversations with thought leaders addressing key issues impacting the public sector today.
I’m your host, Josh Henderson, part of the corporate marketing team here at Tyler, and we’re excited to have you with us.
Every episode, we explore the technologies, trends, and strategies shaping our communities and highlight the people and innovations driving the public sector. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider subscribing, giving us a five star rating, and sharing the podcast with others. In today’s episode, we’re joined by Elliot Flautt, the director of state data solutions at Tyler. Elliot leads efforts in harnessing data to drive innovative solutions for public sector challenges.
And in this episode, he shares his insights on the transformative potential of artificial intelligence, discussing how AI can enhance productivity, improve decision making, and elevate service delivery for government agencies. We’ll explore the implications of AI on public sector operations and examine successful applications that highlight its benefits. And whether you’re a government official looking to understand the role of AI in your organization or simply interested in the future of technology in the public sector, this episode will provide a measured perspective on navigating the evolving landscape of AI.
So, without further ado, here’s my conversation with Elliot Flautt. We hope you enjoy the episode.
Elliot, thanks for joining me today on the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Elliot Flautt: Happy to be back. It’s weird being on this side. I was normally the one doing the, the questioning, but it’s great to be here.
Josh Henderson: It’s great to have you back. I know we have a lot to cover today, so I just wanted to kind of dive right in.
Elliot, how would you describe artificial intelligence, and, you know, why is it becoming such a transformative tool for the public sector?
Elliot Flautt: I mean, that’s a really great place to start and, honestly, something that I want to kind of start by kind of, distinguishing between what we see as maybe even traditional AI that people have been exposed to over the last five years and how that contrasts with something that everybody has kind of come to know and maybe love or fear, which is generative artificial intelligence.
That’s really where we’ve started to see a lot of the most recent conversations come to fruition around how do we use generative AI to its full potential.
So first, to kind of define what artificial intelligence is, it’s really just a broad field of creating systems that can perform tasks kind of more, programmatically.
And those are going to be systems that are good at recognizing patterns, making predictions, and learning from data. On the flip side, generative AI is actually a subset of AI, and really focuses on creating new content and, from things like text, images, or even code that’s based on data that it’s been trained on. So just for an example, traditional AI might analyze things like traffic patterns or permit flows, while generative AI can actually create more realistic simulations, for how to better predict certain types of actions.
So, the key distinction is really generative AI is about producing, creating, and general AI is more focusing on analyzing and automating.
And why I think it’s becoming such a big topic and something that is really becoming transformational tool for the public sector is that we’ve seen a lot of kind of our cultural conversations around OpenAI, ChatGPT.
And these have really kind of entered, the public conversation. So, everybody is kind of wondering, how can we see the cool advancements that have been happening in in more of the private sector now start to be applied to the public sector, and our public sector leaders are really working very quickly and very diligently to impact, and effectuate some of those changes using generative AI, in the public space.
Josh Henderson: It’s good, I think, to get those distinctions, out of the way off the top of the conversation.
So, thank you for that. I want to get into the specific ways AI is, you know, helping to eliminate inefficiencies in the public sector. But before we do that, what aspects of AI do you think resonate most with public sector organizations as they start to, you know, begin exploring its potential?
Elliot Flautt: I think that public sector organizations, at least the ones that I get to speak with on a on a near daily basis these days about AI, is that they’re drawn to AI’s ability to actually provide solutions that align with the mission of the public, you know, serving the public in an efficient, fair, and transparent way.
I think that public sector organizations, at least the ones that I get to speak with on a on a near daily basis these days about AI, is that they’re drawn to AI’s ability to actually provide solutions that align with the mission of the public, you know, serving the public in an efficient, fair, and transparent way.
Elliot Flautt
Director, State Data Solutions, Tyler Technologies
So, on one hand, predictive analytics help governments kind of allocate resources more efficiently, and forecast trends around, you know, service expectations for permits and things that may be happening within their jurisdiction.
They also have been looking to kind of bring in chatbots to streamline citizen interactions by handling routine questions on a twenty four seven three sixty five availability basis, really enhancing that the accessibility of that, sometimes in in a language that is other than English here in the US, as well as reducing wait times to get access to that information. The other piece is really around fraud detection. We we’ve heard a lot of public sector organizations start to understand how we can be better stewards of the public dollar and cut down on some nefarious activities by leveraging a lot of artificial intelligence, developments that have been happening.
And I think finally and probably most importantly is we’re revisiting this conversation around being data driven and being data informed, to really add AI’s capacity to generate these insights, based off of, data to provide evidence based policy making, which is really going to be crucial, for public accountability.
Josh Henderson: Keeping all of that in mind, you know, one of the most significant advantages of AI is its capacity for automation. So, in what ways can AI automate routine tasks and enhance productivity and in and efficiency across organizations?
I really think that’s where AI strength, kind of comes, into helping the public sector achieve some of their mission driven outcomes. It’s really, good, these days in getting even better at automating high volume repetitive task. That really typically consume a significant amount of time and resources.
So, take for instance, you are someone who works in the county clerk’s office or in another office across a jurisdiction, and you receive a bit of information in the traditional workflow where you actually have a piece of paper that somebody submits.
You your job is to read it, to be able to kind of assess its accuracy, its validity, and then, even send that information back to the person who’s who submitted it if there are any errors or discrepancies. But if it’s good to go, submit that into the system of record.
Now enter generative AI. One of the things that I think is really appealing is that we can actually start to do more of that same type of process, that more wrote, manual process by bringing in generative AI functionality rather AI functionality writ large to, extract text from that PDF or that document that has been submitted to, have a large language model that has been trained on that specific use case to say, we think with ninety nine percent certainty that this document is good to go, does not require human intervention, and we can automatically submit that into the system of record, all while preserving the capacity to keep the human in the loop. Because, ultimately, we want to make sure that we’re not turning over, all of our workflows and all of our processes to the robots, because, ultimately, we want to make sure that humans have a say and have the ability to effectuate decisions that only humans should be able to make.
Josh Henderson: And to that point of decision making and service delivery, how do you see AI sort of shaping these areas to improve outcomes and engagement for residents?
Elliot Flautt: I think this is really where we’ve started to see a little bit, of opportunities start to come to life, and there’s so much more potential that we’re going to see in the coming years.
Artificial intelligence kind of offers the public sector at a variety of different levels of jurisdiction the opportunity to kind of move from a reactive to more of a proactive stance. So, we can actually start to help use AI to help governments anticipate needs, which may be something as simple as identifying neighborhoods that are likely to need more resources, whether those are, three zero one type services, or addressing traffic congestion. These AI powered, chatbots and virtual assistants can also make information and services more accessible around the clock. I think I mentioned earlier that this is something that is available twenty four seven, three sixty five because, a chatbot doesn’t need to sleep.
We may have times where we have individuals who are available to answer questions and have escalations. But if somebody is working third shift and needs to have an answer, to a question around, paying a fine or fee at three o’clock in the morning or four o’clock in the morning when they get off work, we want to be able to work with our government partners to make sure that that information is available to them when our when our public and the residents actually need it.
This is really something that is going to help break down barriers for residents, who may even have time or mobility constraints.
AI really enables the capacity for more personalized services.
For instance, residents can actually receive more tailored updates because we’re training information, not people’s information, but more, aggregate information on how to give people who are doing certain types of tasks, serve that information up to them in in a way that’s going to be easier. And by building these connections, we feel that artificial intelligence can actually foster a more engaged and inform resident base for a lot of customers.
Josh Henderson: I think for a lot of jurisdictions, this is still so new. AI is obviously in the tech space, a big topic of conversation. But now to help ground our discussion sort of in real world applications, I’m hoping you can share some examples of how AI has been successfully implemented to improve operations or service delivery in the public sector.
Elliot Flautt: Yeah. And one of the things that I always like to share as part of this conversation is that we feel that AI has what we call a triple impact, which is much more than just chatbots.
Yes. You probably may be talking to every single company under the sun, and they and they say, we got a chatbot to help you out. We think that AI can and should do more than that, at least for our public sector customers that we serve. What we are really looking, to kind of do is optimizing the lanes of productivity, decision making as well as service delivery.
And I’ll break that down into real examples as to where we’ve actually seen this be, helpful. So, for productivity, we’ve seen things like advanced task automation come into the fold where, we have a customer at a state who, has a team of individuals who are within the public defender’s office, and their entire job is to, read the legislation.
Not their entire job, but part of their job is to read the read the legislation and determine whether or not expenses that have been submitted, are eligible for disbursement.
That is a pretty kind of a good candidate for using artificial intelligence to actually do that. And, the generative AI, models we’ve been able to use have actually started to automate twenty percent of these reimbursement decisions around this particular state’s process without the need to really require human intervention. Another example of that that I think is really relevant to some folks who may be listening from our county audience is in places like Tarrant County, Texas or even Palm Beach County, Florida, where we have AI driven workflows that are actually going to be doing that same process I was talking about earlier, where people are sending documents, whether it’s related to, permits or other different ways, e filing even.
These are ways where we can actually have a large language model, an LLM, extract, information automatically from these PDFs and these documents that have been built, and then score them and assess them, for confidence. And then like I said earlier, if they’re able to be submitted in the system of record, they’re going to do that. However, if we find errors and discrepancy that the BLM identifies, that’s going to be kicked out to a human to be able to say, hey. This is something that requires your intervention.
Ultimately, we think that you should review this so that we’re not going to be erroneously inputting information that shouldn’t be put in there. That same process had been seen over and over in, places, across the country, even at the state level in California where they’re using that same process to understand how they can review documents for, to remove or identify and remove discriminatory language, and documents such as deeds and titles. The other kind of piece that I wanted to mention is that there’s the ability to kind of engage beyond just these chatbots. And another area is around, service delivery where we’ve actually seen some of our state customers, in the state of Indiana pilot a beta version of a chatbot that is able to index and build a model on top of their entire website’s content to help service back information to residents regardless of where it may live on the state’s web presence.
So, say for instance, I am someone who’s interested in finding out how I can change careers and become a teacher. I can ask that question and get back information from the Department of Education, from a commission of higher education.
And these are all different ways that we can really use a lot of this information to provide information that is going to be helpful to residents.
Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Jade Champion: Hey, Tyler Tech Podcast listeners. I’m Jade Champion, and I’m here with your host, Josh Henderson, to share some truly inspiring stories from the public sector.
Josh Henderson: That’s right, Jade. We’re celebrating remarkable public sector organizations, transforming their communities with impactful technology and forward thinking solutions.
Jade Champion: These organizations are achieving extraordinary results from improving operational efficiency and enhancing resident engagement to ensuring equitable access to essential services.
Josh Henderson: The stories we see each year are incredible, like agencies turning data into actionable insights or fostering trust through simpler, more transparent processes.
Jade Champion: And let’s not forget the organizations leveraging cloud technology to expand access, boost security, and deliver better digital services to residents and businesses.
Josh Henderson: The spirit of innovation and excellence is what drives the Tyler Excellence Awards, which honor organizations making an impact through technology.
Jade Champion: For the Tyler clients out there, who are creating positive change, applications are now open to be recognized at Connect 2025 in San Antonio next May.
Josh Henderson: And whether you’re a Tyler client or not, be sure to check out our episode show notes for resources that celebrate inspiring stories from across the public sector.
Jade Champion: These stories are proof of what’s possible when technology meets purpose.
Josh Henderson: That’s the kind of excellence worth celebrating.
Jade Champion: Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Josh Henderson: As organizations do start to implement AI or as organizations who have already implemented AI, there’s always ethical considerations.
Those are those are often pretty critical in the process. What would you say are some steps, public sector organizations can take to ensure that ethical and effective use of data is top of mind when implementing AI solutions?
Elliot Flautt: I mean, I think that that that question could be an entire podcast in and of itself, something that I take very, very seriously, and its topics very near and dear to my heart. But one of the things that I think is probably most important is that this is something that needs to be addressed front and center in conversations that public sector organizations are having with their partners or having internally. We’re looking to understand how, governments can establish clear policies, that are, established around data collection and data use, really ensuring that residents understand how their information is being handled.
We should do regular audits of systems, that are, because they’re essential to identify bias, and mitigate, any kind of inaccuracy or unintended consequences.
And then one of the other things to kind of take into account is that we can and should be involving stakeholders, from across our, constituencies in order to bring them to the table and let them know how these systems are operating, how we are actually using this data, and make sure that they align with the values of the communities that we’re serving.
Also, for more kind of looking internally towards some workers that may, or folks may work within government, it’s really helpful and really probably important to provide training programs for staff to ensure they understand how artificial intelligence, is being used within their day to day and also probably how not to use it during their day to day process as well. I’m sure that folks listening to this probably have heard time and time again that we shouldn’t be feeding our data into public gender of AI models. That’s pretty sound advice, honestly. And I think the final thing I want to close with on making sure that we’re taking into account ethics and effective use when using AI solutions is making sure that we’re adhering to some of the best practices that have already been put out there. One of the things that I really love about working in the public sector is that there’s not a lot of competition that exists. It’s more collaboration that exists between different, entities.
So, there are state level, federal level organizations like NASCIO, NIST, IEEE, that are providing really sound documents that are actually evolving on how AI should be used. So, I would look to them to, kind of understand what is going to be some of the best practices that your colleagues may have already learned from even if they’re outside of your jurisdiction.
On more of the city and county side, there is the Gov AI Coalition, which I think is a very effective tool for us to engage with, whether we are industry partners or we are, governments trying to use AI because they’ve been able to provide some frameworks that are helpful for cities and counties, who may not have the same, needs of, say, a state and federal government.
Josh Henderson: Let’s just dive a little bit deeper into that idea.
What role does collaboration between government agencies and technology providers play in successfully leveraging AI?
Elliot Flautt: I think that that is something that, we are going to have to continue to learn how to partner, and continue to get better at doing, particularly because, you know, technology providers and can bring cutting edge expertise and tools and methodologies, while government agencies, are probably providing the most important pieces, which are providing the context, the domain knowledge, and really understanding what the public needs.
The real kind of secret sauce there is that bringing both of those, areas of expertise together in in a single kind of output where governments are trying to use generative AI, really ensures that, these AI solutions are not only technically sound, which ultimately could be somebody building a solution without a problem, but also are kind of aligned to the goals and values of the organization. So, really, kind of what we see is that open dialogue and cocreation of solutions is actually critical, in making sure that we come to the right decision, in supporting our government customers.
Because the flip side of it is that there’s so much risk in getting it wrong that we want to make sure that we are actually tailoring our solutions to meet the very specific needs of what our customers might want. The final piece there is more kind of getting into the how of the collaboration between government agencies and technology providers because, what we have actually seen to be very successful is that you start small and you start with a use case that may not be, you’re not shooting for the moon. We can come to those later. We’re starting with small use cases where we can very quickly kind of measure the impact and whether or not what we’re doing is actually working. And then we can kind of grow and evolve from there. So, start small, start specific, and then we can actually build, once we have some very, clear successes we’ve demonstrated using this new and cutting edge technology together.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. And you mentioned new and cutting edge technology, but it’s changing day to day. It’s evolving rapidly at a at a very, very rapid pace. We often like to look ahead, and, obviously, we can’t predict the future, especially with something like artificial intelligence.
But, you know, as we look ahead and considering the trends that are shaping the future of AI, what would you say are some of those emerging trends in AI that could shape its future role in the public sector?
Elliot Flautt: I this is something that keeps me up at night and also keeps me excited to wake up and come to work every morning because it’s such a new space that we’re entering, and it honestly feels like it’s changing every single day. Like, at the time that we’re recording this, we now have OpenAI that’s releasing a model that isn’t just going to be web based, isn’t going to be mobile app based, but it’s not going to be able to interact directly with your operating system. That provides so many new and interesting opportunities for us to do a lot of these use cases that may have outsized impact in the future. So, beyond just generative AI, I think that one of the that several of the terms that I’ve heard are going from large language models towards small language models where we’re actually able to, build very specific language models that are going to solve a very custom tailored problem and do so with efficiency and with speed.
And that can be very, useful for an agency that has a very specific task that they want to do and don’t have to use the same level of compute that you would need in order to kind of do some of these large language model type activities. The other thing that I have heard, kind of in in passing that I’m really excited to learn more about and see how this evolves in the future is this concept of agentic AI. And these are really, robots in this case that are capable of not just doing the things that traditional and generative AI do, like interpreting data, creating data. These are now, agentic AI bots are able to proactively take actions towards a certain goal.
They really could transform the public sector in a way that people may not have interacted with their government in that way before. So, a lot of the same ways that you see, I don’t know, Amazon suggests things that you may want to buy, your government can now start to suggest things that you may want to do in the community based on some of your previous interactions with the government. And that can all be done using some of these edge agentic services in a way that’s automated, and in a way that is going to be accessible, to users, across the jurisdiction. One of the things I think is going to be really interesting to kind of see how this, starts to grow in the future is the incorporation of AI to kind of drive cybersecurity operations.
These are things where we know that there’s a constant and growing, need for cybersecurity professionals, and we can have AI driven cybersecurity tools that will actually help folks, enhance the workforce they already have working on this problem because it is something, where we can actually have outside impact by leveraging these new technologies.
Josh Henderson: I think that’s the perfect place to wrap things up here today, Elliot. I want to thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. You know, as these AI technologies keep advancing and evolving, we’ll, we’ll have you back on again to, to kind of, outline all of that, for, for more of your valuable insights. So, thank you so much for joining me today.
Elliot Flautt: Thank you. Looking forward to it.
Josh Henderson: I hope you all enjoyed this conversation with Elliot Flautt. If you’d like to learn more about the transformative potential of artificial intelligence and the topics we discussed in this episode, be sure to check out our show notes for additional resources.
Embracing AI in the public sector is not just about adopting new technology. It’s about unlocking efficiencies and enhancing decision making to better serve our communities.
At Tyler, we are dedicated to helping local governments leverage modern technology to improve service delivery and engage residents effectively. And as AI continues to evolve, the public sector has a unique opportunity to embrace its potential for greater impact and engagement.
We’ll continue exploring these possibilities in future episodes.
If you’re interested in exploring these topics further, feel free to reach out to us at podcast@tylertech.com to connect with a subject matter expert. And whether it’s about AI applications, data solutions, or any other area of the public sector, we’d love to hear from you. And don’t forget, we value your feedback on how we can enhance the Tyler Tech podcast. Please fill out our audience survey in the show notes today and let us know your thoughts and ideas for future episodes. And remember to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.
For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining the Tyler Tech Podcast.