Accenture: Singaporeans welcome digital government services

The majority of Singapore citizens (92%) are aware and have access to digital government services, according to results of a multi-country survey* from Accenture, and 66% of citizens who use these services are satisfied with their experiences.

The goal of the survey — which queried more than 5,000 citizens in Australia, Germany, Singapore, the UK and the US — was to determine current levels of citizen engagement with digital government services, the current state of such service offerings, and citizen support for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and other innovative technologies to deliver government services.

“The willingness to embrace and engage with well-designed, innovative digital services is the highest amongst Singaporean respondents across all the five countries surveyed. It’s heartening to see that Singaporeans are aware of the benefits that technological adoption provides as we move towards transforming Singapore into a digital economy.

"The research confirms that Singapore is leading the way in delivering government services to citizens online and in educating and informing them of the digital services available,” said Ng Wee Wei, MD, Health & Public Service, ASEAN, Accenture.

As citizens become increasingly mobile and tech-savvy, they expect government websites and digital capabilities to provide functionality and benefits comparable to those available from the private sector. The majority (67%) of Singapore citizens said that they would increase their use of digital government services if they could access multiple government services from a single online portal, and 77% identified ease of interaction as the most important factor when accessing and interacting with government services online.

Citizens are also accessing more user-friendly AI-driven solutions in their daily lives, and expect the same type of innovation with government services:

- Two thirds (67%) of citizens in Singapore said they would increase their use of digital government services if AI were used to help deliver the services online around-the-clock,

- Nearly seven in 10 (69%) said they would increase their use of government digital services if government used AI to better defend against cybersecurity threats and protect their data.

- Seven in 10 said their trust in the government would increase if the government better communicated how the technology innovations they were deploying would improve the lives of citizens.

The research also indicated strong demand for digital government services that are more personalised — such as by addressing an individual citizen’s preferences, age, demographics or location. In Singapore, half favour proactive content from government applications, 62% want government digital services to include more options for citizens to customise their user experiences, and 65%  want to be able to make payments to government agencies online through a preferred payment method.

“Singapore is on the right track to delivering true public service transformation through digital technologies,” Ng said.

“The government is tapping on the commercial cloud infrastructure to deliver newer, more innovative and secure services to its citizens. This mirrors the research findings where Singaporeans expressed a readiness and an expectation for the government to leverage technologies such as AI to deliver more personalised services.”

Other findings include:

- More than half (56%) of Singapore citizens use multiple government digital services several times per year – compared with a third in Australia

- More than half (57%) of Singapore citizens believe the government should make greater use of AI – compared with 34% in Australia

- About two thirds (65%) of people in Singapore want their government to collaborate with other governments or government agencies to drive innovation – compared with 60% in Australia

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*Accenture surveyed 5,010 citizens aged 18 or older in Australia, Germany, Singapore, the UK and the US on a variety of public service issues and topics. The survey, undertaken in collaboration with the Market Strategy Group, was conducted online in April 2019. Results for the full global sample are statistically significant with a confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of +/- 1.3 percentage points.