The end of bureaucratic delays? Welfare Ministry uses AI to streamline processes

The Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs, together with the National Digital Agency, announced Monday the launch of a new artificial intelligence infrastructure designed for ministry employees and social workers. The system, called “Revach” (רווח), is intended to streamline administrative work and reduce the bureaucratic burden on treatment teams, with the goal of freeing up more time for direct care.

The new infrastructure operates as a closed and secure organizational environment, allowing employees to use a dedicated chat and AI agents to quickly locate procedures, laws, and entitlements. According to the ministry, the system is designed to provide answers in natural language and retrieve relevant information from databases and documents within seconds, something that until now was done manually.

The Welfare Ministry emphasized that the technology does not replace professionals. Shoshi Ben Aharon, the ministry’s Deputy Director-General for Technology and Information, said the infrastructure enables employees to “quickly access professional knowledge and reduce the bureaucratic burden, while fully preserving information privacy and employees’ professional judgment.”

The infrastructure is built around four layers: a secure organizational chat, an AI-agent marketplace, virtual workspaces, and synchronization with the ministry’s databases under stringent security standards. The new environment is also expected to include capabilities for automating routine administrative tasks, including summarizing emails, extracting information from documents, and anonymizing data (removing identifying details).

Merav Peretz-Belinsky, Deputy Director-General for Data and AI at the National Digital Agency, said the project is intended to serve as a model for implementing artificial intelligence systems in additional government ministries. According to her, the knowledge accumulated during the development process will serve as a foundation for similar initiatives across the public sector, with an emphasis on responsible and controlled use of the technology.

About two months ago, a State Comptroller’s report was published highlighting a significant gap between the government’s preparedness to implement artificial intelligence technology in the public sector and Israel’s highly developed AI ecosystem and considerable potential in the field.

The report also pointed to gaps in public-sector data management, on which artificial intelligence depends. Israel’s public sector faces significant obstacles in improving data quality, including lengthy approval processes, regulatory and bureaucratic restrictions, enforcement gaps, information systems that do not interface with one another, and reliance on manual processes.

Shoshi Ben Aharon, Deputy CEO for Technology and Information at the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs: "The Ministry of Welfare is one of the most data-intensive government ministries in Israel, handling especially sensitive information and committed to the strictest standards of privacy protection and data security. The artificial intelligence infrastructure we have developed enables employees to quickly access the professional knowledge they need, identify rights, accelerate work processes, and reduce bureaucratic burden—all while fully maintaining information privacy, security, and the professional discretion of social workers. For us, artificial intelligence does not replace professionals; it strengthens them. Every minute saved on technical and bureaucratic tasks is another minute that can be devoted to a person in need of assistance and to improving the quality of service to the public."