In an effort to increase its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, HMRC is to receive £500m from the Government to invest in a new AI digital assistant that should hopefully reduce phone line traffic and wait times.
Called ‘Ask HMRC’, the new tool will be part of the goal to save £200m per year of admin costs by 2029. Part of the testing of the tool will be to discover if it can perform the same tasks to the same standards as human staff in which case the tasks can be handed over.
Another aspect to be tested will be how easy it is to manipulate the tool and use it for malicious or fraudulent activity.
Only recently, HMRC were criticised for failing to report a phishing scam that cost millions in stolen funds, so how robust this new tool will be and how safe taxpayers’ data within it is will be a big talking point.
We will update you as and when the tool comes on line.