Federal Employment Agency plans to spend 19 million euros on AI

The German Federal Employment Agency plans to spend up to 19 million euros on products and services from German AI start-up Aleph Alpha, as reported by Handelsblatt. According to the report, the federal agency wants to improve its processes, make employees more productive and compensate for workers losing their jobs due to retirement. The framework agreement is to run for four years and is part of the authority's comprehensive efforts to automate its processes.

Stefan Latuski, CIO of the federal authority, spoke to the Handelsblatt newspaper of an "incredible pressure to act". The employment agency still has 115,000 employees. However, it is estimated that up to 35 percent of staff will retire or leave the agency by 2032. "It is illusory to recruit this large number of people again," said Latuski.

30 percent time saved on notification

As a countermeasure, the agency has already developed its own AI and tested it in pilot projects, making it possible to save up to 30 percent of the time needed to formulate decisions. AI is to be used primarily in the automation of official processes, the preparation of notifications and the review of applications, but also in knowledge management and customer advice. However, decisions should always be made by human employees – and AI should not make anyone at the employment agency unemployed.

Elements of the PhariaAI AI platform presented in August are to be purchased from Aleph Alpha for this purpose. This will enable companies and public authorities to integrate AI applications into their own structures in the cloud and on-premise. Compliance, such as the requirements of the European AI Act, can also be met. PhariaAI could then also be used to develop, control and train other AI systems. Both Aleph Alpha's own LLM Pharia-1-LLM and other open source models could be used. According to the report, the employment agency also wants to use Aleph Alpha's model.

Until the employment agency goes public with an advisory AI, this should first be tested as support for its own staff. This will allow them to determine where adjustments need to be made. When she took office, CEO Andreas Nahles proclaimed a "decade of automation" for the employment agency in 2022. Among the advances already presented were the "suctioning" of several hundred thousand job vacancies into the agency's own placement system using machine learning and an automatic check of study certificates for child benefit applications for students.

AI assistant for administration is coming

In addition to the employment agency, Aleph Alpha has long since set its sights on other government customers. The startup announced that the AI assistant F13 is now available nationwide. F13 will initially offer capabilities such as research, fact checking, translations, text generation, summaries and transcription. These functions are to be added in the coming months. F13 has already been in use in the administration of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg since this July.

The AI assistant is backed by a consortium consisting of Aleph Alpha, Schwarz Digits and GovTech Campus Deutschland. The partners charge 1.50 euros per workstation per month for the complete F13 package. Data-sovereign hosting in German data centers is promised. The service provider is STACKIT, a subsidiary of the Schwarz Group. There will also be nationwide training courses on the offer. Partners Deloitte, PwC and Materna are on hand to assist with the integration and implementation of individual requirements. The aim is to have 500 administrations equipped with F13 by the end of 2025.

(axk)