Faced with the growing complexity of managing public services, artificial intelligence is emerging as an essential driver of modernization. While countries like the United Kingdom have embarked on ambitious transformations, Canada benefits from a robust AI ecosystem, ready to support responsible scaling that reflects its values.
The Potential of AI for Public Services
Public services, whether in the management of energy, water, or transportation, are already undergoing deep transformation. At the heart of this change, AI has the potential to anticipate needs, streamline resources, detect anomalies, and reduce losses. It is becoming an essential tool to meet both citizens’ expectations and climate constraints.
Below are concrete examples of AI applications for the public sector.
Smart Energy Grid Management
Modern energy grids leverage advanced predictive models to anticipate demand fluctuations. This forecasting capacity helps prevent the risks of overload or outages, ensuring greater grid stability. Moreover, integrating renewable energy sources becomes significantly easier: real-time adjustment systems can align production with consumption, even when energy sources are variable, such as solar or wind.
Preventive and Predictive Water Resource Management
With smart sensors deployed across infrastructure, it is now possible to quickly detect leaks or anomalies in water networks. This proactive monitoring reduces waste, lowers maintenance costs, and extends equipment lifespan. Furthermore, forecasting tools that combine climate and demographic data give municipalities the ability to anticipate water needs more accurately and sustainably.
Improving Public Transit and Reducing Urban Congestion
Artificial intelligence plays a key role in optimizing transportation networks. By fine-tuning routes and schedules based on user flows, systems can improve service punctuality and reduce emissions from congestion. Real-time traffic analysis also allows rapid operational adjustments based on road conditions, while aiding decision-making for network managers.
Modernizing Administrative Services
In the administrative sector, automation is gaining ground. Virtual assistants are increasingly used to efficiently respond to citizens’ requests, reducing processing times and workload for staff. At the same time, data analysis enables more strategic planning of public services, as well as optimized human resource management within administrations.
Challenges of AI in the Public Sector
Operational efficiency should not be the sole measure of success. The modernization of public services through AI raises major ethical questions: Which data models are used? Which biases could be reproduced? How can algorithm transparency be guaranteed? These concerns are particularly important in the Canadian context, where the inclusion of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities is a priority. Adapting tools to the social and cultural realities of the territory is imperative.
The United Kingdom: A Structuring Model
The United Kingdom offers an interesting example of public structuring around AI. Since 2020, the government has rolled out a usage guide for ministries, followed by a comprehensive AI implementation guide for public administrations in 2025. This framework is based on ten clear principles: human oversight, auditability, explainability, and ethical alignment.
Their approach includes large-scale experiments that have demonstrated significant productivity gains, supported by strong governance involving the AI Safety Institute and the Alan Turing Institute.
Canada: Moving Forward, Slowly but Surely
Rather than following foreign models, Canada is progressing according to its own logic. The country relies on a solid research ecosystem with Mila, Vector, and AMII, as well as public policies such as the Directive on Automated Decision-Making.
Several initiatives are already underway: federal-scale pilot projects, experiments in cybersecurity, and provincial collaborations in British Columbia and Quebec. These efforts can serve as examples for government entities looking to advance with AI.
At the heart of this adoption, it is essential to focus on AI developed in Canada. This strengthens our technological autonomy and better aligns innovations with Canadian values: equity, inclusion, transparency. Public service AI cannot be imported as a turnkey solution; it must be co-developed locally, with citizens. In this way, Canada can build a more responsive, inclusive, and sovereign administration.
As Anna Jahn, Senior Director of Public Policy and Inclusion at Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, reminded the audience at ALL IN in 2024, “the public sector is the one with the most to gain, but also the most to lose, when it comes to adopting AI” (free translation).
In this context, Scale AI acts as a catalyst. By supporting AI projects across all industries, the innovation cluster facilitates the development of concrete solutions tailored to local needs. It fosters partnerships between tech companies, research institutes, and public bodies, to the benefit of all players in the local economy.
This support not only enables prototyping of use cases but also helps structure the skills and training needed for broader adoption. The objective is clear: accelerate the adoption of responsible AI anchored in national priorities.
ALL IN 2025: Unlocking the Full Potential of Canadian AI
ALL IN returns to Montreal on September 24 and 25, 2025, for an edition that will bring together more than 6,000 leaders from the Canadian AI ecosystem. These issues will be at the heart of the discussions, with several targeted sessions such as “AI and the Future of Public Administration: Automation, Accessibility and Accountability” and “Algorithmic Justice: How to Design AI Systems That Avoid Bias”.
The event will be an opportunity to:
- Discover solutions ready for deployment
- Meet the 100 top AI startups in Canada
- Explore inspiring use cases from local organizations
- Network with peers, experts, and investors
- Forge strategic partnerships for upcoming projects
ALL IN is more than an event: it is your gateway to accelerating AI adoption in your organization.
