How the Tax Administration and PRH use AI

At the end of last year, the Tax Administration launched a speaking bot for customers. It can be used to order a “simple tax card”.

“This is the first pilot of this kind of bot,” says Saku Airosmaa, Director General at the Tax Administration.

The bot collects the information needed for the tax card on behalf of an official when the tax card concerns wage or pension income and does not involve more complex information. Airosmaa says the use of AI, specifically in customer service, is one of the most important areas the Tax Administration is currently examining.

“In our view, AI could deliver major efficiency gains if we could use it for a portion of our customer service work. We would like to use AI to provide customer service around the clock, if that were possible.”

For business owners, AI is still used only to a limited extent at the Tax Administration. At present, only a text-based chat service is available. Airosmaa says around 50% of its users feel they get an answer to their question.

“There isn’t any separate AI solution for business customers yet. We develop AI-based services based on volume. We look at which issues generate the most enquiries in customer service and where we can achieve the greatest efficiency gains.”

Airosmaa says the Tax Administration aims to introduce the first version of a speaking, general-advice bot this year. It would provide general advice, in practice using the same content that is currently available on the Tax Administration’s website.

“The benefit for customers would be that the information would be easier to find through the bot.”

Legal obstacle

Under current Finnish legislation, public authorities cannot outsource decision making to AI.

“Decision making can’t be automated, which means we have not been able to take this forward. We’re currently looking more at how AI could support officials’ work. An official’s work always involves a human being, but we have an internal search engine that helps officials search the large number of instructions to find the right information. We’re studying how AI could carry out preparatory work and make employees’ day-to-day work more efficient. In other words, the human being stays in the driver’s seat,” Airosmaa says.

AI may soon be able to provide officials with an initial analysis of a case flagged for tax supervision. This would help the official better understand what is unusual about the case and why it has been flagged for supervision.

“This isn’t in use yet, but we’re testing whether we could make expert work more efficient in this way. The concrete benefit may be seen in productivity. With the same number of staff, more can be done, and processing times will hopefully become shorter as a result.”

PRH uses AI to improve data protection

The Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has used AI in operational work since 2019. That year, AI was introduced to support patent application processing.

“AI helps us find the relevant patent documents in a large volume of material,” says Chief Information Officer Sari Kuisma-Kari.

In customer service, PRH currently uses AI in a chatbot that serves customers around the clock.

In the trademark process, AI is used to support classification and image searches, among other things. Kuisma-Kari says the technology makes it easier to classify goods and service items correctly.

AI is also being used to improve data protection.

“We use text recognition in the electronic archive. This improves data protection in documents with regard to personal data.”

PRH experts also use AI in their own work, for example in translations.

Automation not the same as AI

Kuisma-Kari says the PRH is currently studying how AI could affect processing times, which have occasionally grown longer.

“We have started the groundwork on an AI agent platform and related technology to allow us to move forward with introducing agent-based solutions. We have long sought to shorten processing times through automation.”

Automation can be used to handle clear, routine tasks that do not require case-by-case discretion. It is particularly suitable for unambiguous, rule-based tasks.

In future, the PRH aims to use AI at the application intake and processing stages.

“We can provide support to customers who are about to submit an application. AI can highlight possible issues in the application before it’s sent for processing. This is still only at the planning stage, however.”

Kuisma-Kari stresses that safeguards will be needed to ensure that AI does not provide incorrect information.

“That is why we need a control mechanism. AI must be continuously supervised to ensure that it works correctly. AI does not replace tasks that require responsibility or judgement. Above all, it makes work more efficient; it doesn’t replace human work.”

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