AI Agents Increase Public Service Requests, Leading to "Agentic Flooding"

AI Drives Surge in Public Service Requests

Public services worldwide are reporting a substantial rise in applications and complaints, a phenomenon attributed to the increasing accessibility and capability of AI tools. These tools simplify the process of filling out forms and filing official requests, leading to a significant increase in submissions.

Examples include the UK housing ombudsman, which saw complaints more than double from 2,600 in 2022 to over 7,000 last year following ChatGPT's introduction. Similarly, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau experienced a five-fold increase in complaints during the same period. Brazil and Germany also reported similar jumps in judicial and parliamentary petitions, respectively.

The Phenomenon of "Agentic Flooding"

Researcher Chris Schmitz is tracking this trend, which he calls "agentic flooding." His paper, to be presented at the AI Ethics and Society conference, examines 84 potential flooding cases across 11 jurisdictions. Schmitz's research indicates that AI tools are fundamentally altering how people engage with public services.

While the paper does not directly attribute the surge to AI for methodological reasons, most cases show a flat submission rate before 2022, followed by rapid growth as AI technology became more widespread. This growth has largely not slowed, suggesting a continued upward trend.

Implications for Public Services

The increase in volume presents a challenge for public services. Some new filings are adversarial, but many come from legitimate applicants using AI to submit claims they might otherwise abandon. Schmitz views this not as AI-generated spam, but as an opportunity to re-evaluate and redesign social services for the AI era.

The ease of using AI, from precise prompting with ChatGPT 3.5 to simply taking a photo of a letter with an app like Claude, makes it increasingly simple for individuals to file requests. This mirrors experiences in other sectors, such as bug-bounty services, which also saw an influx of reports.