Opinion: AI is not a weight loss injection for too much bureaucracy

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One thing is always booming in Germany: bureaucracy. With the active help of the EU, our state has erected an impressive bulwark of rules and regulations. The effects are palpable: Citizens are banging ever louder on the door of the Department for Provisional Circulars, which once again takes four to six months to process applications because it too is completely overloaded. And according to estimates by the ifo Institute, the local economy now has to spend 146 billion euros a year just to cope with bureaucracy.

An opinion by Axel Kannenberg

Axel Kannenberg has been scouring the internet for news that no one has ever seen before for heise online since 2012 and for iX since 2023. He has mastered the noble art of insult fencing. In 2013, he enjoyed a kebab worth several thousand euros (at today's bitcoin exchange rate).

There is no question that our country is increasingly losing its ability to act. What can be done? Politicians talk a lot about cutting red tape, but so far have only delivered diets with a strong yo-yo effect. The latest belly-away belt is supposed to do the trick: generative AI.

AI as a democracy booster?

The German Federal Employment Agency, for example, is investing up to 19 million euros in a framework agreement with AI start-up Aleph Alpha. This could save up to thirty percent of the time it takes to process notifications. AI is also to be used in the courts, where the mountains of files pile up to the top of a train, for example for mass proceedings. And the three hours a day that medical staff have to spend on average on documentation are to be reduced with approaches such as AI for doctor's letters.

Yes, generative AI is now the big thing in the "public sector", as a study by the German Economic Institute (IW) claims to have found out. Google kindly paid for it. Automating processes, analyzing data, summarizing texts - AI is set to become the administrative turbo. And as IW Director Michael Hüther says: "democracy booster". Because it can make the state more capable of acting and restore lost trust among citizens.

The wrong paramedic in times of need

The study claims that this could increase value creation in the public sector by up to 23.9 billion euros. And certainly also the added value of the tech industry, as someone has to pay for the expensive AI data centers and their horrendous electricity bills. I'll ask for a friend, the German taxpayer.

Generative AI is still deeply susceptible to hallucinations, so you often have to check its results manually? Surely it makes you 300 percent more efficient at writing irrelevant meeting minutes and winky-miley LinkedIn posts. But how can something like this bring order to completely over-complex processes with barely manageable responsibilities? And even worse: what is AI supposed to accomplish if the problem is a rather nebulous legal basis, the clarification of which is often left to the courts? IT freelancers are familiar with this when it comes to the tiresome issue of bogus self-employment – and, of course, the German Pension Insurance also relies on AI for company audits in this matter.

"We need to tidy things up here"

Digitalization is undoubtedly a key building block for efficient administration – We urgently need digital interfaces between authorities, for example. However, when it comes to the current hype surrounding administrative AI, I prefer to go with Erika Raab, Chairwoman of the German Society for Medical Controlling. She has this to say about the insanity of specifications that is also happily dancing on the tables when it comes to billing for medical services: "There are currently over 980 billing rules and variants, some of which overlap. No one can keep track of that, and artificial intelligence won't help." And she makes a clear statement that I would like to write into the next government's notebook in red ink and thick underlining: "We need to clean up this mess."

That's how it is. Making lean, good regulations and reducing the legion of far too complex ones – would significantly increase my trust in the state. But unfortunately, that's a tough job in our not exactly uncomplicated procedural democracy. It's probably much easier to throw taxpayers' money at shady promises from the tech industry. The promise is familiar from the TV commercials of the 80s: "I want to stay the way I am – you may!" But if nothing changes in terms of regulatory behavior, then even the digital weight loss injections won't help.

(axk)