Redesigning Public Assistance

The New York State Department of Labor recently launched an Excluded Workers Program with the aim to bring financial relief to thousands of workers across the state who lost income during the pandemic and did not qualify for government-issued COVID-19 benefits.

In an amazing effort, the NYDOL set up a new eligibility program in just 12 weeks and approved over $850 million in benefits for distribution in the first month. But new programs also mean new challenges, and the NYDOL needed to not just ensure that funds were being distributed, but that they were reaching the right people.

How did they do it? With the help of Artificial Intelligence. By tapping technologies from Google Cloud and data science software Quantiphi, the NYDOL was able to launch a cloud-based user-friendly and streamlined application program that helped to ensure benefit integrity.

That’s what host James Hanson, Group Publisher for Federal and Technology Markets at GovExec will be digging into on this episode of AI: Gov Reimagined. James will be speaking with Denise Winkler, strategic business executive for Global Public Sector at Google Cloud and Taylor Cyr, managing director of Public Sector/Higher Education at Quantiphi. We’ll be discussing how Quantiphi is helping the NYDOL spot fraud and abuse in the Excluded Workers Program — and how agencies can use cloud-based AI tools to help safeguard constituent benefits.

Check out what they have to say by listening to the full episode below. Or download and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or SoundCloud to take AI: Gov Reimagined with you on your favorite device.