AI tools are flooding public services with complaints and applications, slowing them down

Gaby Hinsliff argues that AI tools are gumming up public services rather than streamlining them, citing rising employment tribunal cases up 39% in a year, which she says partly reflects claimants using AI to draft claims.

She writes that Whitehall advisers complain of AI-generated freedom of information requests, and MPs' offices face floods of AI-written letters that humans must still read. She warns that as public use of agentic AI grows, shortcuts risk becoming bottlenecks.