Automating Government Services with RPA and Document AI

Government agencies process enormous volumes of documents — applications, permits, licences, compliance filings — largely through manual, paper-based workflows. One of our clients, a regional government agency, was processing over 50,000 documents monthly with a team of 30 staff. Processing time averaged 14 days per application.

The Challenge

Documents arrived in multiple formats (PDF, scanned paper, email attachments). Each document type had a different structure. Staff spent the majority of their time on data extraction and validation, not on the substantive decision-making they were hired for.

The Solution

Document AI: We built a document classification and extraction pipeline using Google Document AI and custom fine-tuned models for agency-specific forms. The pipeline automatically classifies incoming documents, extracts structured data, and flags exceptions for human review.

RPA: UiPath bots were deployed to automate the downstream workflow — populating the case management system, sending acknowledgement letters, routing to the correct team, and generating standard correspondence.

Human-in-the-loop: Exceptions (low-confidence extractions, incomplete documents) are routed to a review queue where staff approve or correct the AI's work. This maintains quality while dramatically reducing manual effort.

Results

- 60% reduction in average processing time (14 days → 5.5 days) - 45% reduction in staff time spent on data entry - Error rate reduced from 8% to under 1% - Staff redeployed to higher-value case assessment work - £1.2M annual efficiency savings