The UK government has established CustomerFirst, a new unit within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology tasked with modernising public services through private sector expertise and modern technology. Led by Tristan Thomas (formerly Monzo) and co-chaired by Octopus Energy CEO Greg Jackson, the initiative aims to eliminate friction points—long phone queues, repeated form-filling, paperwork—by deploying AI and digital-first solutions across government departments. The DVLA will serve as the pilot, handling millions of annual interactions around driving licences and vehicle registration. The government projects £4 billion in savings from shifting service processing online, whilst maintaining accessibility for users unable or unwilling to engage digitally. This represents a deliberate attempt to import private sector CX practices into public administration, with explicit reference to how Octopus Energy uses generative AI to draft 35% of customer emails and achieve 70% satisfaction ratings.
The implications for CX teams are substantial. Government agencies will now compete for talent and best practices with commercial vendors, potentially accelerating adoption of AI-assisted support, omnichannel routing, and modern contact centre infrastructure across the public sector. The question of whether legacy government systems can actually support the "NewCo" transformation model—operating free from constraints whilst building new solutions in parallel—will determine whether this becomes a blueprint or a cautionary tale. Teams already managing complex multi-channel environments in regulated sectors should anticipate increased demand for expertise in service redesign and AI implementation, particularly around the critical challenge of maintaining human-centred support whilst scaling automation. The emphasis on ensuring "no one is left behind" signals that government CX leaders will need to solve the hybrid support problem more rigorously than many commercial organisations have managed, making this initiative a potential testing ground for genuinely inclusive AI-augmented customer service.
Government customer services to be modernised with help of industry experts GOV.UK
Government customer services to be modernised with help of industry experts www.gov.uk