Only every tenth municipality uses AI, despite the fact that large sums of money can be saved with the new technology.
This is shown by TV4 Nyhetern’s survey among Sweden’s municipalities.
In Katrineholm, the city is monitored with cameras where AI warns when something abnormal occurs.
Around Katrineholm there are intelligent cameras connected to an algorithm trained to react when something abnormal occurs.
– This is a solution that we can use partly as a deterrent, but above all to send signals to, for example, the police, ambulance or our own security guards in the municipality to put measures in place if something that shouldn’t happen happens, says the chairman of the municipal board in Katrineholm Johan Söderberg ( S).
The cameras can both be used to stop crime and intervene if someone were to get hurt.
– It could be a person who suddenly collapses and has become ill, it could be a fight going on, it could also be drug sales and other things that we don’t want to happen, says Johan Söderberg.
Can save billions
Among the 140 municipalities that responded to TV4 Nyhetern’s survey, only eleven percent state that they use AI. This despite the fact that the Agency for Digital Administration calculated that the public sector could save SEK 140 billion a year with the help of AI technology.
Right now, AI Sweden is running a project that supports municipalities in getting started with AI. Rebecka Lönnroth is strategic developer at AI Sweden, national center for applied AI.
– The municipalities are beginning to understand that this is a tool for them. We meet a great deal of curiosity to get started and test. Then there is a long journey left in figuring out what the challenges and risks are and when this should be used.
There is enormous potential
In Katrineholm, they have high hopes for the new technology.
– The absolute biggest challenge for all municipalities and regions is the supply of skills. And if you can then use modern technology such as AI and other solutions to work more efficiently and perhaps reassign the staff to do other things than these monotonous tasks, then I think there is a huge potential that we will actually be able to fulfill our welfare mission in the future, says Johan Söderberg.