Industry
Digital, software and AI for the public sector
Where accessibility is law, procurement is formal, and the service has to work for everyone rather than for a target segment.
Public sector digital work differs from commercial work in a specific way: the service has to work for the whole population rather than a chosen segment. That removes the option of designing for the easiest users and treating the rest as an edge case, and it is why accessibility here is a legal obligation rather than a quality target.
The second difference is procurement. Formal processes, documented evaluation and audit requirements mean a supplier who cannot produce the paperwork will not reach the work regardless of capability.
Why this sector is moving now
Accessibility obligations under the Web Accessibility Directive have applied to public sector bodies since 2018 and are actively monitored, with accessibility statements required and complaints mechanisms mandated.
Legacy systems are the structural reality. Public bodies run services on systems that predate current expectations by decades and cannot simply be replaced, which makes integration and incremental improvement the realistic path rather than transformation.
Transparency and records obligations mean decisions and data are subject to access requests, which changes how systems must store and retrieve information compared with commercial equivalents.
The pressures behind it
- Accessibility as law
- Obligations in force since 2018, monitored, with statements and complaint routes required.
- Formal procurement
- Documented evaluation and audit requirements that gate access to the work.
- Legacy integration
- Services running on systems that cannot be replaced, only connected to.
- Data residency
- Processing location frequently specified rather than negotiable.
- Transparency obligations
- Records and decisions subject to access requests, changing storage and retrieval requirements.
- Universal service
- Designing for the whole population rather than an addressable segment.
Where the work usually starts
Usually accessibility remediation and service journey improvement on existing digital services, because the obligation is live and the work is bounded and evidenceable.
Legacy integration follows, then automation of the administrative layer. Replacement is rarely the realistic starting point and proposing it is usually a sign a supplier has not worked in this environment.
Marketing and brand for public sector organisations
- Brand Strategy & Development
- Public bodies are usually constrained by government identity standards, which limits brand work to service clarity within those standards. Naming and language that citizens actually understand does more than visual identity.
- Brand Management
- Consistency with mandated identity guidelines across services built at different times by different suppliers. Accessibility is part of that consistency and frequently the part that varies most.
- Social Media Strategy
- Service communication and public information rather than promotion, with a genuine crisis and incident dimension. Accessibility applies to social content too, which is widely overlooked.
- Social Media Management
- Response expectations are high and the audience includes people in difficulty. Escalation routes and records retention matter because public communications are subject to disclosure.
- Content Creation & Creative Production
- Plain language is a requirement rather than a style preference, and content has to work for the whole population including people with low digital confidence. Accessible formats are part of production rather than a conversion afterwards.
- Digital Marketing
- Where it applies it is public information campaigns rather than acquisition — take-up of a service, awareness of an entitlement. Measurement is against reach into specific populations rather than cost per conversion.
- Paid Advertising
- Used for public information campaigns with procurement and transparency obligations attached to the spend. Targeting choices may themselves need justifying, which is unusual outside this sector.
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Citizens search their situation rather than the name of a service or a department. Content organised around what someone needs to do, rather than around the organisational structure, is the whole opportunity.
- Email, SMS & WhatsApp Marketing
- Service notifications, appointment reminders and status updates. SMS reaches populations email does not, which matters when the service must work for everyone rather than the digitally confident.
- Lead Generation & Prospecting
- Not applicable in the commercial sense. The equivalent is proactive identification of eligible citizens for an entitlement, which is a data matching exercise with significant fairness and privacy considerations.
IT, software and AI for public sector organisations
- Website Design & Development
- WCAG conformance as a build requirement, plain language, and service journeys that work on old devices and poor connections. Performance matters more than in commercial work because the audience is everyone.
- CRM & Sales Systems
- Case management rather than sales, with records obligations and access request implications. Retention rules are set by records schedules rather than by preference.
- Business Process Automation
- Application processing, document collection, appointment scheduling, notification and reporting. Administrative volume in public services is large and rule-based, which makes it well suited.
- AI Automation Systems
- Document extraction, correspondence triage and routing. Anything that determines eligibility, entitlement or enforcement is an automated decision affecting rights, and requires far more than a technical assessment — we would not build it without that being established first.
- AI Knowledge Bases & RAG
- Policy, guidance and procedure, retrievable with citations for staff. Public-facing assistants must be grounded and must refuse rather than guess, because a wrong answer about an entitlement causes real harm.
- AI Voice & Customer Communication
- Contact centre volumes are genuinely high and the case for automation is real. The escalation path has to be immediate and unconditional, because the callers most likely to struggle with an automated system are the ones the service exists for.
- Custom Software & Platforms
- Justified where no product fits a statutory process, which in public services is more common than elsewhere. Open standards and exit provisions matter because procurement rules and long horizons make lock-in expensive.
- Data Engineering & BI
- Service performance, demand patterns and outcome measurement, with lineage documented because figures may be published or scrutinised. Transparency changes the standard a report has to meet.
- Cloud, DevOps & Infrastructure
- Data residency is frequently specified, and NIS2 brings cybersecurity and incident reporting obligations to many public bodies. Both are procurement conditions rather than technical preferences.
- Systems Integration
- Legacy case systems to modern front ends, identity to services, payments to finance. This is the core discipline, because replacement is rarely available and connection is.
- Digital Transformation Consulting
- The audit usually finds accessibility gaps in services delivered by previous suppliers and administrative capacity consumed by processes that automation could handle within existing systems.
- Maintenance & Ongoing Support
- Accessibility conformance degrades as content is added, which makes ongoing monitoring an obligation rather than good practice. Statements must be kept current.
What is specific to this sector
The Web Accessibility Directive has applied to public sector bodies across the EU since 2018, requiring WCAG conformance, a published accessibility statement and a feedback mechanism. Compliance is monitored and reported by member states, which makes it materially more enforced than the private sector equivalents, and it should be treated as a build requirement rather than a remediation project.
Automated decision-making that affects entitlement, eligibility or enforcement engages GDPR Article 22 and, where in scope, high-risk classifications under the EU AI Act. In a public sector context this also raises administrative law questions about reasons and review. We do not build such systems without that position being established by the organisation and its advisers.
Records management and transparency obligations mean data and decisions may be subject to access requests years later. Systems must therefore support retrieval by criteria nobody anticipated at design time, which is a different requirement from commercial data storage and should shape the model.
Cross-border recognition of electronic identification under eIDAS means a citizen of one member state may need to access a service in another using their national identity means. Services designed around a single national identity provider hit that boundary the moment they are used from abroad, and retrofitting it is considerably harder than allowing for it.
The Open Data Directive designates categories of high-value datasets that public bodies must make available in machine-readable form through APIs, free of charge. That turns publication into an engineering obligation with format and availability requirements rather than a periodic file upload, and it should be scoped as a service.
Not legal or regulatory advice. Sector rules described here are scoping context, current to our latest review. Confirm what applies to your business with a qualified adviser.
Questions
How strict are the accessibility obligations?
They have applied since 2018, they are monitored and reported by member states, and they require a published statement and a feedback route alongside WCAG conformance. In practice they are enforced considerably more than private sector equivalents.
Can we replace our legacy case system?
Rarely, and proposing it is usually a sign a supplier has not worked in this environment. Integration and incremental improvement around systems that cannot be replaced is the realistic path and where the achievable value is.
Can AI decide eligibility or entitlement?
Not in anything we build. Those are automated decisions affecting rights, engaging Article 22 and potentially high-risk AI classification, and raising administrative law questions about reasons and review. That position has to be established by you and your advisers before anyone writes code.
What about data residency?
It is frequently specified in procurement rather than negotiable, and NIS2 adds cybersecurity and incident reporting duties for many bodies. Both are conditions rather than preferences and shape the architecture from the start.
Why does plain language matter so much here?
Because the service has to work for the whole population rather than a segment, including people with low digital confidence and people in difficulty. That removes the option of designing for the easiest users.
Are you set up for public procurement?
We handle the documentation — security questionnaires, data processing agreements, accessibility evidence, insurance. We would be straightforward if a particular framework or scale exceeded what we can realistically satisfy.
What does it cost?
Quoted per phase against a defined scope, structured to fit procurement requirements. Accessibility remediation in particular is bounded work with evidence as a deliverable.
Do we need to support foreign electronic identity?
Where a service is open to citizens of other member states, cross-border recognition under eIDAS becomes relevant and a single national identity provider is a constraint. It is far easier to allow for at design time than to retrofit once a service is live.
Is open data publication just a file upload?
Not for designated high-value datasets, which have machine-readable format and API availability requirements. That makes publication a service with uptime and format obligations, and it should be resourced accordingly rather than assigned to whoever has the spreadsheet.