The Public Service Commission (PSC), which is the country’s largest employer with 172,133 government workers, has reassured civil servants that they will not lose their jobs to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
It said the adoption of modern technologies, in line with global standards, is intended to support workers, and not replace them.
PSC chairperson Vincent Hungwe said the adoption of new technologies is to empower civil servants so they can deliver better and more efficient services.
He made the remarks during a public lecture at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) in Bulawayo on Monday. Said Hungwe:
“In the next five years, the Zimbabwean public service will be defined by three core principles, namely, that it will be human-centred, anticipatory and frictionless.
“The goal of technology is not to replace the civil servants, but to empower them.
“Artificial Intelligence will handle repetitive data tasks, freeing up our public servants to do what machines cannot — to show empathy, to exercise judgment and to provide the human touch that remains at the heart of true service.
“This means using technology to enhance human capability, not replacing it but creating a public service where machines handle the predictable, allowing humans to focus on the exceptional.”
Hungwe said the public service will no longer wait for problems to occur but will instead use technology and data to predict them early and prevent them from happening. He said:
“Imagine AI that analyses data to dispatch social workers to a community before a crisis of teenage pregnancy or substance abuse spirals out of control.
“By being frictionless, we mean that the days of long queues and cumbersome paperwork will be a relic of the past.
“This means creating seamless digital pathways that eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks, reduce corruption opportunities and put services directly in the hands of citizens.”
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