Why The Government Needs SMEs

Although The Insolvency Service is a quiet, risk-averse agency, they have become one of the most advanced users of Gen AI across all the public sector due to their mindset of; when you want different outcomes you need to do things differently.

Two years ago, The Insolvency Service where exploring their Gen AI options and compiled 80 or so use cases to tackle, this immediately showed them this was not going to be one-off project. However, they had little money, no spare technical capability and a very high governance bar so, to successfully implement Gen AI, they had to think differently. They scanned the market exploring possible solutions but to achieve the standards they needed to go live, with their available resources, they opted into utilising an SME, in this instance it was us.

The Insolvency Service now have eight live uses cases each one getting more sophisticated than the last. They achieved this due to the fact SMEs can behave differently, they can provide a different set of solutions, and it was soon realised that if you want different outcomes, you need to be open-minded to trying new avenues/ businesses. In this instance they reduced costs, improved staff-satisfaction and freed up frontline resources, not through the use of a hyperscaler or by hiring consultants, but by tackling the innovation process differently. All of this was achieved for roughly the cost of one mid-tier consultant working half time.

Let that sink in.

Fundamentally, our point is, if government continues to buy the same way they have always bought, it’s likely they’ll end-up buying the same things they have always bought.

Our experience with The Insolvency Service shows that success stories like this are ready and waiting if government are open to utilising the offerings provided by SMEs. By staying flexible, not throwing money at the problem and innovating with courage and creativity.

Imagine what other government departments could achieve with a similar mindset.