National Foster Care Month is a reminder that more than 330,000 children in the U.S. foster care system depend on an overburdened child welfare infrastructure and on the social workers working tirelessly to support them. At the same time, government leaders across the country are facing growing pressure to modernize public systems and deliver services more efficiently. The rapid momentum of AI and modern technology is creating a rare opportunity to do both.
From Washington D.C. to local agencies, government leaders are increasingly recognizing that modern technology and AI can help public systems operate more effectively and better serve communities. When implemented correctly, these tools can be transformative in driving better outcomes for communities and restoring public trust in government.
THE STATUS QUO TECH IS NOT WORKING
Legacy government vendors have overpromised and underdelivered with slow, bloated deployments. In fact, it’s estimated that only about 13% of large government IT projects fully succeed due to cost, scheduling, and performance. In addition, the average government IT project runs 310% of the original estimate. These unsuccessful deployments and higher-than-estimated costs create an understandable hesitancy when considering new technologies for the government to adopt.
This all comes at a time of urgent challenges for the government and for the child welfare system. There is a national shortage of foster families and social workers (a 2023 analysis concluded there would be a shortage of 74,000 social workers annually for the next decade). Both foster families and social workers are stretched to their breaking points.
Sources show that 25% of youth in foster care will become homeless within 4 years of aging out of the system, and 50% will experience the criminal justice system by age 17. Social workers are doing vital work every single day to improve outcomes for the children in foster care in the U.S., but they end up spending upwards of 50% of their time on administrative work—largely because they lack access to the tools needed to automate workflows and reduce paperwork. This heavy administrative burden limits the time social workers can dedicate directly to children and families, but also contributes to burnout and the nationwide role shortage.
So, how do we ensure social workers are able to focus on the critical work they want to do—directly working with children and families—rather than getting buried in administrative tasks? By empowering them with the right tools and technology. But then comes the next challenge: How do we give government decision-makers confidence that the tools they are funding will truly be effective? By moving away from the bloated, outdated systems of the past and instead leaning into modern technology that’s been proven to work.
SAAS IS ALREADY IMPROVING GOVERNMENT
SaaS products offer a fundamentally different model than legacy custom-built systems: fast, easily deployed solutions that actually work. Instead of building a separate system for each state, companies like mine analyze commonalities and differences across states to create software that’s shared, but easily configurable.
This approach allows agencies to deploy tools faster, reduce the risk of failed implementations, and continuously benefit from improvements rolled out across the platform. Rather than making massive upfront investments into isolated systems that quickly become outdated, agencies can adopt proven solutions that evolve over time and deliver value more quickly.
AI CAN TAKE THIS TO THE NEXT LEVEL
We’ve already seen how modern technology, such as SaaS, can drive real impact through government. Today, we have a unique opportunity to take that impact to the next level by leveraging AI for good.
There are valid concerns around AI—especially AI for government. My view is that AI is a powerful tool that can streamline administrative work – not a tool that should be making decisions on behalf of the government. It can automate mundane, repetitive tasks and surface the right information more quickly, freeing social workers to spend more time supporting children and families.
AI can be used to drive real-world positive impact, with features to help social workers with mundane tasks like taking notes, filling out forms, and searching for information in case notes. We’ve heard from social workers using Binti, for example, who report up to 75% time savings per home study when using AI features.
THIS IS WHAT TECH FOR GOOD AT WORK LOOKS LIKE
The result of properly leveraging modern technology is that the government will see greater efficiencies, workers will be more empowered and less prone to burnout, and communities nationwide will benefit. In the case of child welfare, we have already seen how SaaS solutions and AI are helping agencies deliver better support and outcomes for America’s most vulnerable population—children. But the potential does not stop there. The same tools can be applied across other areas of social work and government, ensuring that workers are spending less time on administrative tasks and more time serving people.
In this moment—marked by a surge in demand for greater government efficiency—we have a unique opportunity to embrace SaaS and AI to truly transform how the government works and ultimately deliver better outcomes for communities across the country.
Felicia Curcuru is CEO and cofounder of Binti.