HM Revenue and Customs, a department of the UK Government, is looking at how artificial intelligence could be used for compliance and complex tax cases.
The department is examining the role AI might play in some of its more complicated tax operations according to various publications, which cited acting digital transformation director Brigid McBride.
Speaking at the t the Public Sector ICT event, McBride said, “We use a lot of new channels like social media, to help deal with simple queries. We also have a virtual assistant – called Rita – a very simple robotics technology. The pace of change is not slowing, the demands of our customers are growing, and our customers are moving towards self-employment.
The real challenge is building an organisation that can absorb that change and adapt to it.”
The tax agency has set a target of automating 10 million processes by the end of the year. Its journey towards this goal is being fuelled by the ideas of its employees.
‘With robotics, we have been working with our customer services,” McBride added. “If you have an old and ageing technology, your call centre staff (appreciate) a simple solution that brings data together and then repopulates the legacy system.”
Earlier this year, UK’s Treasury Committee launched an inquiry into unregulated digital currencies and distributed ledger technology.
As the cryptocurrency market continues to gain momentum in global markets, there have been questions over how they will be regulated to avoid substantial risks. The committee will look into the role of digital currencies in the UK, including the opportunities and risks that digital currencies may bring to consumers, businesses, and the government.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also recently started looking for views on the merits of creating a global FinTech sandbox.
Launched in 2016, its sandbox has supported 60 firms in the UK to test their ideas with real customers in the live market under controlled conditions. The UK model reduced the time and cost of getting ideas to market, facilitated greater access to finance for innovators, enabling products to be tested and introduced to market, and ensured appropriate consumer protection safeguards according to the FCA.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
