Are service typologies the key to scaling agentic AI systems across public services?
As a service designer working in government, after a while you begin to spot patterns in the ways government services are shaped.
Service typologies are simply a way to articulate the kinds of service patterns we see. For example, many services allow you to apply for something. We can classify these types of services as “applications”.
In AI Studio, we wanted to test a working theory – that identifying service typologies could help our team find common approaches for the use of agentic AI across GOV.UK, without having to review every service independently.
How we identified service typologies
As a starting point, we used the existing list of 75 digital services across government. After evaluating the list, we identified 8 different kinds of citizen-facing services that live on GOV.UK today.
An information hub
A means of providing detailed contextual information in order to help a user decide what’s right for them, for example Get into teaching
A task list
A way of providing a sequential, holistic view of all the individual actions a user needs to take in order to achieve an outcome, for example Learn to drive
A portal
Portals provide a method of grouping actions that might benefit or necessitate from being behind a user account or another secure means of accessing information within them, for example Student finance
An application
A way of collecting information from users that often needs checking at different points in time before the outcome can be received, for example Apply for child benefit
A register
When government needs an official list, for example Register to vote
A licence
When a user or business might need to prove they have permission to do something, for example Buy a fishing licence
An appointment booker
A way of scheduling appointments and managing service capacity, for example Visit someone in prison
A payment service
A standalone way to take money. Often this is needed because information has to be checked before taking a payment, for example Pay your self assessment)
This isn’t an exhaustive list, and these types of services can overlap or connect. For example, the process of someone learning how to get into teaching may end up completing an application form.
What we’re doing next
Our plan now is to use these 8 service typologies as an abstracted view to identify all the processes and actions that take place within the. This will allow us to evaluate where agentic AI interactions could really add value in government services.
We’ll post an update in the coming weeks on this site.
If you’re interested in the commonalities of services, there’s also a grassroots network called Service Patterns UK which explores common approaches to design problems across services.