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The Reimagined State: Governing in the Age of AI
The 20th-century model of government is no longer fit for purpose. Political leaders must now transform how government serves its citizens for the AI era.
The Reimagined State is a framework for modern governance that harnesses the opportunity presented by new technologies to strengthen governments’ ability to deliver for their people. A reimagined state doesn’t just digitalise existing structures. It rebuilds them around a new logic: speed, adaptability and a relentless focus on outcomes.
WHY A REIMAGINED STATE?
A new operating system for government
We can’t build the next century on systems built last century. By strategically adopting AI, leaders can create a new, adaptive operating system for government, one that’s innovative, efficient and fit for the 21st century. A reimagined state leverages digital technologies to redesign public services around people – making them more personalised and human centric – and to make government more transparent and accessible to citizens.
The real-world benefits unlocked by a reimagined state
Personalised health care
Data-driven platforms and AI can make both preventative medicine and personalised health care accessible at scale.
Accessible world-class education
Digital technologies can provide an agile education system that delivers accessible, personalised learning resources to students irrespective of geographic and economic barriers.
Safer streets
A tech-enabled, citizen-centred approach can restore public confidence in policing and help prevent crime by making the system visible, accountable and easy to navigate.
Watch Tony Blair and Peter Kyle in conversation at London Tech Week 2025 about how governments should embrace the 21st-century technological revolution to deliver transformative change for their citizens.
What are some examples of public services that can be transformed by AI?
AI has the potential to help reimagine the state across almost every department and area of policy. Many of the daily tasks carried out by officials in all areas of government are repeatable processes carried out on a mass scale, and almost all of them can be made better, faster and cheaper. TBI has published a number of papers discussing how this principle can be applied to specific policy areas, including health-service reform, policing and the management of public spending – but there are many more possibilities, and the scale of the solutions will be determined by leaders’ ambitions.
How can AI in government empower citizens?
Ordinary people using public services can benefit from improved efficiency and better communication, freeing them from unnecessary bureaucracy when interacting with the state so that they can focus on their lives and businesses. AI is also the most powerful tool for personalisation ever built, allowing government systems to better understand and respond to people’s individual life and family circumstances.
Are there opportunities for local government too?
The day-to-day tasks of local government can almost all be performed faster, better and more cheaply with the use of AI, allowing councils to overturn an operating model that is bureaucratic, labour-intensive and unresponsive to need. TBI research has suggested local authorities across England and Wales could make an annual time saving worth £8 billion by automating or improving tasks using AI.
How will this affect civil servants and the public-sector workforce?
AI has the potential to release staff from repetitive tasks and relieve an overburdened and demotivated workforce, allowing officials to focus on delivering public services that transform communities and drive economic growth – and, at an individual level, helping make employees’ working lives more fulfilling.
In the news
Media coverage of our Reimagined State expertise
TBI has published a wealth of research on how leaders can harness the opportunities of technology to drive better outcomes for citizens – and why doing so is essential. You can find out more below.
Read The Guardian’s article on TBI research from January 2025. It reveals how voters are abandoning centrist political parties as they lose confidence in their ability to deliver meaningful change, pointing to the need for radical new approaches. Full report: Disruptive Delivery: Meeting the Unmet Demand in Politics.
TBI Senior Director of Policy & Politics Ryan Wain’s Independent op-ed (January 2026) is on the need for coherent, system-wide reform of public services.
Find out how local councils can make use of AI as the most powerful tool to drive meaningful public-service reform, as laid out in an op-ed for Municipal Journal by former TBI Director of Government Innovation Policy Alexander Iosad (July 2025). Full paper: Governing in the Age of AI: Reimagining Local Government.
Adopting AI tools in health-care settings can revolutionise the NHS, from reducing waiting times to enabling faster triage: this is the argument put forward by TBI Director of Health Policy Charlotte Refsum (April 2025) in an op-ed for the Health Service Journal. Full paper: Preparing the NHS for the AI Era: Why Smarter Triage and Navigation Mean Better Health Care.
Read Ryan’s Telegraph op-ed (February 2026) on the need for radical tech-aided reform to restore public trust in policing. Full paper: Policing That Makes Britain Safer – Not Just Better at Counting Crime.
Discover how AI can upgrade the UK government’s Spending Review process, replacing the traditional model with an always-on system that informs decision-making – as reported by The Times and The Telegraph (June 2025). Full paper: Reimagining the Spending Review: A New Model for Smarter Public Spending.
Understand how African leaders can harness the power of AI to transform governance and unlock tangible gains for their communities, as reported by African Business (April 2025). Watch TBI Managing Director for Africa Nzioka Waita’s appearance on CNBC Africa to discuss progress in countries such as Rwanda and Kenya. Full paper: Governing in the Age of AI: Unlocking a New Era of Transformation in Africa.
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