AI E-Government expanses into jobs and benefits in Kazakhstan

A deeper overhaul of Kazakhstan e-government system is to come. Artificial intelligence is expected to identify services citizens need, to match unemployed people with vacancies. It will also assist officials in identifying potential recipients of social assistance.
Minister of AI and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev and Minister of Labor and Social Protection Askarbek Yertayev outlined the plans at a government meeting on August 11. 50 of the most frequently used public services currently work with eGov GPT, which the government was testing earlier this year. Madiyev said that these account for around 30% of citizens’ requests. By the end of the year, that share would increase to 70%. According to Madiyev, applicants used the assistant over 150,000 times during its first four months. As an official government description of the system says, it can identify the appropriate public service from a user’s request and help complete it online.
Users should describe their situation to eGov GPT (“I need to register my address” or “My child is starting school this year”). Then, the assistant identifies the relevant procedure, helps prepare the application, and guides it through the government system.
E-government system started to appear in Kazakhstan in the 2000s. It led the country to the 24th place among 193 states in the latest UN E-Government Survey. Countries’ online public services, the infrastructure and human capacity to use them are assessed by the index.
Earlier, digitizing a service meant that a citizen could fill in the required form online instead of travelling to a Public Service Centre. Now the work will become even more simple.
Madiyev reports a 30% downfall of the number of requests handled directly by Public Service Centre staff. So, the plan of authorities’ is a gradual transformation of the centres into what they call AI offices. It will be possible for visitors to submit a request through eGov GPT, apply for an identity card, passport, or driving licence through a terminal. They will also be able to collect the finished document from a parcel locker, including at weekends.
Also, government-held information on an unemployed person’s occupation, qualifications, and skills will be compared with employers’ requirements by a new Digital Employment Service. When it finds a match, it will send an offer to the citizen through eGov, the state employment portal Enbek.kz, or an SMS from the 1414 service number. Also, recommendation of training or retraining, or relocation in another region if a suitable vacancy is available will be possible.
The Pavlodar region in north-eastern Kazakhstan was the first to experience a trial in July. Yertayev reports that 962 potential jobseekers subsequently found work.
They expect to introduce algorithms into social assistance from October to identify potential recipients of state payments in advance, with the help of government databases.

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