The Social Welfare Office of the City of Nuremberg, in collaboration with forml GmbH, is demonstrating what digitalization in public administration can look like in practice: In a project that was implemented within a short timeframe and involved complex technical requirements, various departments of the City of Nuremberg worked together with the start-up company forml GmbH to lay the foundation for a semi-automated digital case processing system for housing benefits at the Social Welfare Office, using artificial intelligence. 

The developed and tested AI tool primarily functions as an assistant for caseworkers. The analyzed data and documents are aggregated, presented in a clear and transparent manner in a "processing cockpit" for the caseworkers. Additionally, the AI is capable of reading submitted documents (such as income statements, rental contracts, and pension notices). Based on this information, it determines which documents still need to be submitted and which details have already been provided in a complete and consistent manner. Furthermore, the tool generates processing suggestions and recommendations for caseworkers, and upon request, creates the appropriate correspondence to be sent to applicants. In combination with the "housing benefit robot" — an RPA-based system that has already been in use at the Social Welfare Office for some time — this results in semi-automated administrative processes. 

You can learn more about how an interdisciplinary collaboration between a public administration and a start-up company has successfully taken a pragmatic step toward AI-based, semi-automated processes in a conversation with Volker Wolfrum (Head of the Social Welfare Office) and Yasin Tatar (Managing Director of forml GmbH).