HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) will begin rolling out artificial intelligence (AI) to check tax returns and issue penalties, it has been suggested.
Brigid McBride, HMRC digital transformation director, said the tax office would be able to automated millions of its processes.
HMRC is no stranger to AI, however. It already uses social media to filter queries, assisted by a “virtual assistant” known as Rita.
“The pace of change is not slowing, the demands of our customers are growing, and our customers are moving towards self-employment,” Ms McBride said, speaking to delegates at a public sector technology event.
“The real challenge is building an organisation that can absorb that change and adapt to it.”
He added that HMRC has identified hundreds of small projects poised for automation, which could encompass around 10 million singular actions.
Its goal is to make “mundane tasks automatic”.
“That in turn makes our processes more efficient, and it also frees up our customer contact advisers to do more interesting and customer-facing work,” said Mr McBride.
The intelligent reform has not gone without opposition, however. Employment campaigners have warned that automating all processes will be at the expense of human workers, while in January, a Judge indicated that automating fines for late tax returns could be illegal.
Under current rules, Judge Richard Thomas said the requirement was for a “flesh and blood human being who is an officer for HMRC” to make an assessment.