AI Drives More Public Service Applications Worldwide

AI tools are contributing to a sharp increase in public service applications and complaints, according to researcher Chris Schmitz. His study examined 84 cases across 11 jurisdictions, including housing complaints in the UK, consumer complaints in the U.S., and legal petitions in Brazil and Germany. While some submissions may be low quality or adversarial, the research suggests many come from people with legitimate claims who previously avoided applying because of the effort involved. Schmitz calls this trend “agentic flooding” and argues that AI could reduce administrative barriers while forcing governments to redesign online services for much higher application volumes.