AI Agents Flood Public Services with Citizen Requests

Since AI tools became accessible to everyone, the way individuals interact with government institutions has changed dramatically. With the ease of filling out forms and drafting formal complaints using smart assistants like ChatGPT and Claude, public services around the world are witnessing an unprecedented wave of requests, raising serious questions about the ability of these systems to adapt to the new reality.

Numbers Reveal the Scale of the Phenomenon

Recent data shows remarkable jumps in the number of applications submitted to official bodies. In the United Kingdom, complaints directed to the Housing Ombudsman have doubled, rising from around 2,600 complaints in 2022 to more than 7,000 complaints last year. In the United States, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recorded fivefold growth over the same period. This was not limited to these two countries, as similar increases appeared in judicial petitions in Brazil and parliamentary petitions in Germany.

The Phenomenon of "Agentic Flooding"

Researcher Chris Schmitz observes this rise as part of a broader trend he calls "Agentic Flooding." In a research paper set to be presented next month at the AI, Ethics, and Society Conference, Schmitz analyzed 84 potential cases across 11 different jurisdictions, finding extensive evidence that AI tools are reshaping the relationship between citizens and public services.

The cases he studied covered a wide spectrum of services, from social welfare applications to formal judicial appeals, all available through electronic platforms that any smart assistant can access. Although the study did not definitively conclude that AI is the direct cause of this increase for methodological reasons, most cases followed a single pattern: relative stability in the number of requests before 2022, followed by an accelerating rise with the spread of the technology, with no signs of this growth slowing down in the future.

Increasing Ease Drives Usage

Schmitz believes that the development of smart tools' capabilities and their ease of access explain this surge. While submitting a complex application previously required gathering a lot of information and drafting precise prompts, today the matter is much simpler.

He explains this by saying that a user might now simply photograph an official letter through a smart app to get a good response on the first attempt, whereas in the past the matter required considerable effort and expertise in drafting requests.

Is It a Crisis or an Opportunity?

Some observers compare what is happening to what bug bounty programs experienced last year, when companies' inboxes were flooded with low-quality reports generated by language models. But the fundamental difference here, according to Schmitz, is that the majority of new requests directed at public services come from real people who genuinely have legitimate claims.

• The overwhelming majority of cases are for people who genuinely deserve what they are asking for.
• The reason for their previous reluctance was the "administrative burden" and the complexity of submission procedures.
• AI removes this burden and gives disadvantaged groups a voice.

From this perspective, Schmitz does not view the phenomenon as spam, but rather considers it a rare opportunity to redesign social services to suit the AI era.

Toward Redesigning Public Services

The biggest challenge remains how institutions will respond to this growing volume, especially with budgets remaining fixed in the face of a doubling number of applicants. However, Schmitz sees this as a reason for optimism, affirming that a large part of making AI successful lies in envisioning the ideal version of things.

He concludes that anyone who has used a smart tool to prepare their tax return realizes there is a better version of the experience in which they feel they are receiving genuine help. And this may be the right moment to rethink everything related to the shape of these government processes.

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