The use of technology would come after Financial Secretary Paul Chan announced in his budget speech back in February a plan to reduce the civil service by 2 percent annually over the next two financial years that he expects would result in a cut of approximately 10,000 posts by April 1, 2027.
Yeung said that to ensure services remain unaffected, the bureau has been urging government departments over the past two years to review their workflows, identify opportunities to use technology to reduce manpower requirements, reassess work priorities and adjust staffing levels as necessary.
Speaking after an RTHK radio programme appearance, she highlighted the government’s ongoing exploration of artificial intelligence applications and cited an example of departments already using AI for repetitive tasks.
“Last week, I went to the Census and Statistics Department … that uses artificial intelligence very well,” she said.
“It is used to do some repetitive tasks that was mainly done manually in the past, such as verification checking.
“The manpower saved is then invested in exploring how to use artificial intelligence to do a larger range of work.
“It is worthwhile for other departments to learn from this.”
