Enhancing Citizen-Government Communication with AI: Evaluating the Impact of AI-Assisted Interactions on Communication Quality and Satisfaction

2025-01-18

AI Summary

This study investigates the impact of AI-assisted text rewriting on the quality of bidirectional communication between government agencies and citizens. Addressing five public-service scenarios—including service requests and policy inquiries—we propose the first dual-perspective (citizen–civil servant) AI communication evaluation framework, incorporating 12 dimensions: satisfaction, clarity, empathy, politeness, trustworthiness, responsiveness, urgency, and others. Leveraging NLP-driven rewriting techniques and multidimensional Likert-scale surveys, we employ paired t-tests and ANOVA for statistical analysis. Results indicate that AI significantly enhances citizen-reported satisfaction, politeness, and trust (p < 0.01), as well as civil servant–reported clarity, politeness, and responsiveness. However, divergent effects emerge in affective dimensions—empathy and perceived urgency—revealing an imbalance between AI’s rational and emotional communication capabilities. These findings provide empirical grounding and actionable design guidelines for human-centered AI deployment in public administration.

Technology Category

• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility
• Natural Language Processing: Ethics — Bias, Fairness, Transparency & Privacy
• Multiagent Systems: Agent Communication

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Assisted, interactive, and conversational search
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI

Abstract

As governments worldwide increasingly adopt digital tools to enhance citizen engagement and service delivery, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerges as a pivotal advancement in public administration. This study examines the impact of AI-assisted interactions on the quality of communication between citizens and civil servants, focusing on key dimensions such as Satisfaction, Politeness, Ease of Understanding, Feeling Heard, Trust, and Empathy from the citizens' perspective, and Clarity, Politeness, Responsiveness, Respect, Urgency, and Empathy from the civil servants' perspective. Utilizing a questionnaire-based experimental design, the research involved citizens and civil servants who evaluated both original and AI-modified communication samples across five interaction types: Service Requests, Policy Inquiries, Complaints, Suggestions, and Emergency Concerns. Statistical analyses revealed that AI modifications significantly enhanced most communication dimensions for both citizens and civil servants. Specifically, AI-assisted responses led to higher satisfaction, politeness, clarity, and trust among citizens, while also improving clarity, politeness, responsiveness, and respect among civil servants. However, AI interventions showed mixed effects on empathy and urgency from the civil servants' perspective, indicating areas for further refinement. The findings suggest that AI has substantial potential to improve citizen-government interactions, fostering more effective and satisfying communication, while also highlighting the need for continued development to address emotional and urgent communication nuances.

Problem

• Artificial Intelligence
• Government-Citizen Communication
• Effectiveness Enhancement

Innovation

• Artificial Intelligence
• Public Service Efficiency
• Citizen Engagement