The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has upgraded three of its user services by integrating advanced technology and artificial intelligence solutions, in line with the focus areas and design principles outlined in the Government Services Development Guide 2.0 issued by the Prime Minister’s Office. The move will help government efforts to digitalise and comes after the signing of the Government Services Quality Charter.

The Ministry of Finance redesigned the user experience across three transformative services through accelerator programs that spanned three months from August to October 2023. This has reduced the time taken to use the services to become immediate, and the steps to avail the service have been streamlined. The ministry has also expanded the delivery channels by introducing new ones, such as WhatsApp for the Ministry of Finance, in addition to the smart application and the website.

Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, pointed out that the government of the UAE is developing an approach based on benefiting from user insights in designing government services to achieve a direct positive impact on society, contributing to enhancing readiness and digital competitiveness of the UAE government. Accordingly, the ministry provides an exceptional experience for users.

Al Hussaini said, “As part of the comprehensive national efforts to make government services in the UAE the best of their kind, the Ministry of Finance strives to provide an easy and effective user experience based on the latest technologies, which constitutes a quantum leap in elevating the experience of the UAE government in developing services and adopting continuous improvements by benefiting from the latest technology.”

He added, “We prioritise involving customers in the design of services and benefiting from their suggestions at all stages until the evaluation of the efficiency of achievement, which contributes to the continuous development of government services to achieve top positions in global indicators.”

Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, and Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office, highlighted the UAE government’s keenness to translate the leadership’s directives to accelerate digital transformation efforts and develop services by leveraging technology and artificial intelligence solutions, which supports its aspirations to establish the best models of government services in the world.

Al Olama stated that the Ministry of Finance’s initiative to employ generative artificial intelligence solutions in developing some of its services reflects the advanced level it has reached in the journey of developing its services and enhancing the experiences of its customers. He praised the ministry’s innovative experiences in developing services and enhancing comprehensive digital transformation efforts in the government, under the leadership of H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

The Ministry of Finance adopts an excellence-driven approach to government services by developing its services and enhancing the customer experience so that government work becomes a reference point for knowing the best practices, such that future government services are characterised by speed, proactivity, inclusiveness, security, and ease of use.

In the context of providing the best experiences for customers and improving the quality of services to be personalised and tailored to their needs, the Ministry of Finance has built a comprehensive team for transformational services, where the Government Services Development Guide 2.0 is the primary reference in the process of designing, delivering, and developing government services within transformational tracks in accelerated programs and targets to be achieved within a maximum of three months.

The three services developed by the Ministry of Finance are ‘submitting inquiries for federal entities accounting’, ‘supplier registration in federal supplier register’, and ‘submitting inquiries about the ministry’s services’.

The development of the first service, submitting inquiries for federal entities accounting, relies on providing the service on the designated site for mobile phones in addition to the smart application, eliminating manual data entry for requirements and replacing it with automatic data extraction, introducing generative artificial intelligence to respond to inquiries, and in case of an inability to respond automatically, the inquiry is directed to the responsible employee without submitting a new request, where the customer journey on the service was reduced from nine to three steps and the time to provide the service was shortened from six working days to become immediate.

The second service, supplier registration in the federal supplier register, relies on simplifying the registration journey of the customer, sequencing the steps, and removing more than 50 percent of the registration fields. There has also been the completion of 87 improvement procedures to facilitate the registration of suppliers on the digital procurement platform by involving suppliers in the service development process. The service has been added to the smart application and new channels for instant notifications about the order status to improve user experience and increase their satisfaction.

As for the third service, submitting inquiries about the ministry’s services, its development was based on redesigning the customer’s experience by integrating generative artificial intelligence technology, significantly enhancing the user experience and improving the efficiency, accuracy, and speed of obtaining information. If customers are dissatisfied with the response, requests will continue to be automatically sent, offering practical and renewed support experiences that meet the customer’s needs through the mobile application platform and the website.