Can digital really bring the administration closer to its agents, elected officials and citizens? Provided you are well thought out, it becomes a concrete lever to reconnect public service to the field.
Not so long ago, evoking “collaboration” in an administration made more than endless validation circuits than a real exchange. Agents overwhelmed by emails, elected officials disconnected from the field, citizens left unanswered … Digital was there, certainly, but often in the form of poorly engaging PDF forms. However, things are changing. Slowly, certainly, but surely. Digital does not do miracles, but it begins to keep its promises, and sometimes even to do better.
The end of the corridor, the start of the collective
The first real transformation is that of silos. Too often, in public organizations, each service works in a vacuum: well -stored procedures, but no gateway between the teams. Result ? A simple question about a grant can wander for three weeks before landing at the right office.
But a new dynamic emerges. Collaborative tools redraw the contours of daily work. We see shared spaces born where we act together, in real time. Less from “I send you that by email”, no more “come, we take care of it now”. Digital becomes a common workbench: we put the ideas there, we shape them with several, and we leave with concrete.
This fluidity also transforms the work culture. The agents no longer remain locked in their perimeter. They meet colleagues from other services, share practices, help each other without delay the next meeting. The administration ceases to be an organization chart, an addition of partitioned services to become a living, transversal, reactive collective.
Information that circulates … really
But to collaborate, the information it is still necessary to exist, and that it reaches the right people. Again, digital tools change the situation. News, HR announcements, regulatory reminders: everything that once ended up in a forgotten note on a display panel is now accessible, sometimes on a simple phone. Information becomes alive, visible, useful again.
And on the ground? Maintenance agents, technicians, mediators, garbage collectors … All these often invisible but essential functions have long been cut off from collective life. Today, a well -designed mobile application can circulate information down to the street, on the bus, on the site. And above all, it allows these agents to bring back what they are going through, what they see, what they have to say. The information no longer goes down only: it circulates in both directions.
The terrain is not a vague word
We talk a lot about “field”. But we too often forget that it is very real and inhabited. By citizens, first. Those who call a standard, write to the town hall, challenge an elected representative on a market. This land claims clear, fast, human responses. No service from service to service or endless deadlines.
Again, digital can make a lever: not to dehumanize the relationship, but to free up time. A well thought out chatbot does not replace a reception agent, but he can answer a simple question at midnight when the offices are closed. This time saved, we can reinvest him where he counts: to support an elderly person in his efforts, listen to a young person in difficulty, process a complex file with the attention he deserves.
But it must be said frankly: before wanting to graft artificial intelligence on all floors, the bases must still be there. A fluid organization. Information that circulates. A culture of sharing. A sober, controlled digital, at the service of everyday life. The AI will then come, in reinforcement. Not replacement. And especially not like a magic screen.
Ideas do not come from above
Last link, and not least: collective intelligence. Too often, public innovation is seen as a privilege of experts. And yet, it is users, field agents, the inhabitants themselves who have the most useful, most concrete, most urgent ideas. Sometimes it is enough to reach out to them, to open a channel to them.
Citizen platforms are emerging, allowing everyone to offer, vote, enrich neighborhood or service projects. What if these initiatives were the real gateway to a digital field? A digital that does not authorize the problems, but which helps to formulate them, to understand them, to solve them together.
AI can play a role here too, sorting, suggesting, analyzing. But it will never replace the legitimacy of collective deliberation. Nor the intuition of an agent who knows his neighborhood by heart.
Neither miracle nor gadget: a lever to master
Let’s be clear: these tools are worth nothing without support. They are useless if they dig the digital fracture instead of filling it. But well thought out, well deployed, they have a salutary boomerang effect. Digital accelerates what works, reveals what is blocking, and above all it frees time. Time to restore to those that digital does not touch directly. To those who are far from screens, but at the heart of the public service. Because it is not the speed that brings the administration closer to the land. It is his ability to better listen, to understand better, to respond better.
