Across the UK’s 6.12 million public sector workforce, manual process inefficiency is adding up to 30.6 million hours of extra work every week.

This is according to new research from Appain, in partnership with Coforge, which found that on average, manual process inefficiency is costing public sector workers five hours per week.

Of the 1,000 UK public sector workers surveyed in the 2025 UK Public Sector Efficiency Survey, 94% say they face process inefficiencies in delivering citizen services.

Manual and repetitive tasks, a need to access multiple legacy systems to view or enter the same information, and a lack of training and support were the top three challenges cited by public servants.

Process change is also a common obstacle, as 91% of public sector workers say that their organisation finds adapting its processes challenges, specifically when trying to maintain productivity amidst changing service demands, citizen needs, and government policies.

AI and automation: The keys to efficiency

Despite process challenges, the public sector is optimistic about the opportunities AI and process automation offer.

Nearly two thirds (62%) of survey respondents have some or even high confidence in AI’s potential to improve their organisation’s efficiency. Those in back-office IT roles (71%) were most likely to report confidence in AI, followed by those in citizen-facing services (65%) and back-office business roles (57%).

About three in four (72%) respondents believe that automating repetitive tasks would simplify their jobs and improve efficiency.

The vast majority (95%) of respondents that use workflow or process automation tools have already reported experiencing benefits.

“Every public service organisation is built on processes. When those processes improve, so do the services delivered to citizens,” said Peter Corpe, industry leader, UK Public Sector at Appian.

“With millions of hours at stake, automating low-value admin tasks and resolving process inefficiencies offers the public sector a chance to work more efficiently. This means more time for the strategic and value-driven activities that directly impact citizen outcomes.”

Recommended reading

• Security and Compliance Concern Hampers AI Public Sector
• Public Sector Must Build Up Tech Resilience
• UK Gov to Reform Old Public Sector Tech and Save People “Billions”

Pressure on the public sector to improve productivity

In its latest budget, the UK government has set all departments a 2% target to improve productivity, efficiencies and savings for next year. Using technology more effectively is one way to achieve this goal.

According to a 2025 review by the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) “Over £45 billion per year of unrealised savings and productivity benefits, 4–7% of public sector spend, could be achieved through digitisation of public sector services”.

The review goes on to say, “This makes digitisation the most powerful lever available to drive public sector and service reform”. It lists process simplification and AI-driven automation of manual tasks as two predominant opportunities to drive savings.