How will AI and analytics keep people healthy, safe and thriving in 2024?

SAS experts in government and health weigh in with predictions

Governments and health organizations shoulder tremendous responsibility for enhancing and supporting people’s happiness, health and livelihoods. Public sector entities are turning more and more to AI and analytics to improve efficiencies and deliver better services and programs that improve people’s lives – and that trend will only accelerate in 2024. Additionally, those organizations must be particularly careful to wield these advanced technologies responsibly because the potential harm to people is greater when dealing with personal health and well-being.

In what areas will public sector applications of AI and analytics truly flourish in 2024? Where will our lives be impacted the most? Government and health experts from global AI and analytics leader SAS shared their thoughts.

Visit SAS 2024 predictions for more trends and forecasts.

AI and analytics become integral to citizen safety

“AI will be increasingly used as a weapon by criminals to identify targets for scams and fraud and generate fake content for blackmail and reputational damage. However, it will also be a key tool for investigators to pore through internet traffic and digital evidence to uncover perpetrators and organized crime rings.” 

-        Ashley Beck, Senior Law Enforcement Industry Consultant, SAS; Board Member, Scotland Women in Technology

“The rise of AI and analytics will continue to transform the government workforce, including in public safety. In 2024, law enforcement will see a turning point in hiring ‘digital natives’ who embrace and demand technology to protect, defend and serve citizens.”

-        Shaun Barry, Global Director, Risk, Fraud and Compliance, SAS

“As increasingly sophisticated fraud threats in the public sector emerge, governments will rise to the challenge by embracing analytic and AI strategies that can intelligently detect and prevent fraud throughout critical program networks, while also improving the customer experience for legitimate users who depend on their services.”

-         Jeremy Ray, Government Fraud Expert and Senior Industry Consultant, SAS

“Space is emerging as the next front for global security. Space agencies, grappling with extensive data from expansive radar and sensor networks, will intensify the use of IoT [Internet of Things] analytics and AI, incorporating streaming edge analytics alongside digital twins and synthetic data. This comprehensive approach aims to elevate space domain awareness applications, revolutionizing situational awareness and operational readiness in space operations.”

-        Bobby Shkolnikov, Head of IoT Federal and Global Principal in IoT Commercialization, SAS

“Governments are accelerating efforts to launch digital identification programs, aiming to make it easier and safer to use a government ID in a range of circumstances – from airport security checkpoints to retail age verification. In 2024 we’re going to start seeing more convergence of commercial and government digital IDs. With an emphasis on equal access, security and user convenience, digital IDs will see more widespread use, acceptance and interoperability over the next two years.”

-        Carl Hammersburg, Senior Manager, Government and Health Care Risk and Fraud, SAS

AI and analytics will touch our lives, from early education to the workforce

“The workforce implications of AI will start being felt in government. Governments have a hard time attracting and retaining AI talent since experts command such high salaries, however, they will aggressively recruit expertise to support regulatory actions. And like enterprises, governments will also increasingly turn to AI and analytics to boost productivity, automate menial tasks and mitigate that talent shortage. I also think we’ll see a growing number of nontechnical roles weighing in on the AI conversation. It needs to be more than just technologists setting the agenda when there are implications for justice, well-being and equity. We need nontechnical domain experts to consider those implications and uncover risks and opportunities in their domains of expertise.”

-        Reggie Townsend, Vice President, Data Ethics, SAS

“AI will play a pivotal role – automating routine administrative tasks, analyzing vast amounts of data for better decisions, expanding digital citizen services, enhancing public safety – as governments optimize efficiency with a smaller workforce.”

-        Kay Meyer, Director, Government Industry Consulting, SAS

“In 2024, states will increase the streamlining of services to children and youth by connecting data and program functions across departments of education, health and human services, and behavioral health to provide more school-based mental health services.”   

-        Nadja Young, Director, Education Practice, SAS

“In 2024, K-12, career and technical education, community colleges, higher education institutions, and workforce development agencies will connect data and program delivery to help expand opportunities for high school students, postsecondary students and workers to upskill and reskill.”

-        Leah Burton, Principal Industry Consultant, Higher Education, SAS

AI and analytics boost public health services and advance health outcomes

“Forecasting and modeling are rapidly becoming the cornerstone of public health work, but government needs help. Enter academia. We will see an increase in academic researchers carrying out AI-driven modeling and forecasting on behalf of government. It is clear after COVID-19 – the protection of our population will require exceptional technology and collaboration.”

-        Meghan Schaeffer, National Public Health Advisor and Epidemiologist, SAS

“To advance health and improve patient and member experiences, organizations will further develop generative AI-powered tools in 2024 for personalized medicine, such as the creation of patient-specific avatars for use in clinical trials and the generation of individualized treatment plans.”

-        Steve Kearney, Global Medical Director, SAS

“LLMs [large language models] will be tapped to generate clear and concise summaries of complex medical information, making it easier for patients to understand their diagnoses and treatment plans.”

-        Greg Wujek, Global Life Sciences Industry Consultant, SAS

“By 2030, 1 in 6 people in the world will be over the age of 60, according to the World Health Organization. 2024 will open the door to government generative AI use cases to promote healthy aging and ease service provider staffing concerns. Examples may include remote monitoring and the increased use of smart technologies for patient compliance, risk management and quality of life enrichment.”

-        John Maynard, Principal Solutions Architect, Health Care and Government, SAS

Responsible innovation & trustworthy AI become essential

“We will see increased sophistication in how we measure and monitor the performance of AI and how we are tracking toward responsible AI goals. Public sector agencies will use features such as model cards, which basically serve as nutrition labels for models, to know if a model overstepped or underperformed.”

-        Reggie Townsend, Vice President, Data Ethics, SAS

“Government organizations will step up the use of large language models to parse huge sets of unstructured data. That will be accompanied by a stronger commitment to using trustworthy AI and analytics methods to help develop and tune their applications.”

-        Tom Sabo, Solutions Architect, Cognitive/Computer Scientist, SAS

“The rapid development and application of AI across an increasingly broad range of social and commercial sectors create significant opportunities as well as risks. In 2024, we will see multinational government coalitions emerging and partnering with industry to establish and enforce guardrails around the development and deployment of AI to ensure it’s used safely and securely.”

-        Caroline Barnett, Principal Defense and Intelligence Industry Consultant, SAS

“Health organizations will focus on compliance with AI regulations like the EU AI Act and FDA framework. To ensure the safety and trustworthiness of health AI tools and that they align with applicable regulatory frameworks, organizations will lean into AI model governance practices such as data lineage, traceability, model documentation, reproducibility, versioning, signing and GxP for health care environments.”

-        Christian Hardahl, Global Health Care Solutions Manager, SAS