In many countries, generative AI is gradually being applied to gradually improve the quality of public services and improve people's experiences at touch points in many fields such as administration, education, healthcare, etc.

VietNamNet recently had a conversation with Ms. Nguyen Quynh Tram, General Director of Microsoft Vietnam, about the power of artificial intelligence in promoting social progress, economic growth and improving the quality of life.

Generative AI is acting as a virtual assistant to humans. Can this special “assistant” replace civil servants?

Microsoft CEO: With limitless potential, artificial intelligence in the public sector is acting as an “assistant” to governments. However, this does not mean that this technology will replace the role of civil servants, but instead increase their work performance with high impact and low cost.

AI will help civil servants shorten the time it takes to find the information they need for their work, for example quickly searching for regulations, laws and previous reports on a topic to find answers or new policy directions, helping them summarize the content of meetings or simplifying the process of drafting standard documents.

For example, Singapore's Government Technology Agency is now harnessing the power of AI by using Azure OpenAI technology to complete repetitive daily tasks.

With the support of AI, civil servants will be freed up to focus more on conducting field research, interacting with citizens or engaging in tasks that require empathy, creativity and strategic thinking to make the right decisions, thereby bringing added value to their work.

General Director of Microsoft Vietnam - Nguyen Quynh Tram.

In terms of improving people's experience with public services, what will generative AI bring?

Microsoft CEO: It can be said that improving interaction with citizens is one of the obvious benefits from applying generative AI in the public sector.

Specifically, generative AI technology can be integrated with intelligent translation tools, helping local people better understand public services provided by the government, something that was not possible before, especially in multilingual Asian countries.

In India, for example, villagers in Biwan are using Jugalbandi, a new chatbot on the WhatsApp platform, to do everything from receiving their pensions to accessing information about university scholarships.

The tool is able to understand questions in multiple languages, whether in audio or text, retrieve information about relevant programs, often written in English, and translate that information into the local language. This saves people a significant amount of time compared to searching the web and navigating through multiple links.

Is generative AI helping improve the quality of public services?

Microsoft CEO: In Asia, generative AI is opening the door to a future of personalized, human-centered healthcare and education services.

AI tools can record conversations between doctors and patients, thereby providing diagnoses and prescription recommendations for the doctor to review. Doctors will then have more time to talk to patients, instead of having to stare at the screen.

Similarly, in the field of education, AI can assist teachers in organizing classes and preparing lesson plans in a reasonable and effective manner. For students, AI is a high-quality virtual tutor that can help them improve their learning efficiency, etc.

The CoolE Bot chatbot application currently being used in Taiwan is a strong example of this. The Ministry of Education of Taiwan is using CoolE Bot to help high school students practice speaking English without having to worry about standing in front of a crowd.

Launched in December 2022 and built on Azure OpenAI services and other Microsoft technologies, the chatbot helps assess pronunciation, accuracy, and fluency.

In case students have difficulty expressing themselves, they can simply click on the button and the chatbot will suggest a question to continue the conversation.

So far, about 30,000 students have used the solution every month, with the goal of helping Taiwan become a bilingual country in Chinese and English by 2030.

Generative AI will help enhance people's experiences in the fields of administration, education, and healthcare.

In Asia, how will generative AI expand its influence in the public service sector?

Microsoft CEO: This is just the beginning of the development of generative AI. That also means that future advances in this technology promise to have even more impact. In other words, it is likely that generative AI will change all life on earth.

Across Asia, new regulations on generative AI are being developed to match the pace of this technology. I believe that, first and foremost, countries must develop and deploy generative AI carefully and responsibly, while protecting privacy and data security to increase public trust.

The second major challenge is universal access to all parts of the country. This requires expanding access to the Internet and data services via mobile devices, an area where Asian countries have made great progress, but there are still large urban-rural disparities. The use of personal devices also needs to be expanded.

What is the future of generative AI in the public service sector in Vietnam?

Microsoft CEO: I always have great faith in the potential of artificial intelligence to create change when this technology is deployed to tens of millions of Vietnamese people.

We have a real opportunity to leapfrog, we just need to implement it step by step very carefully, based on a well-prepared technology platform. In addition, we need to learn, evaluate and learn from the experience of applying generative AI in the public sector from successful countries in the region.

I believe that Vietnam will seize this great opportunity to empower every citizen, through generative AI, to access public services in a simpler and more efficient way.

Thank you!

vietnamnet.vn