AI agents are sending more requests to public services

AI tools are making it easier to complete forms and file complaints, and public services are reporting sharp increases in requests. In the United Kingdom, complaints to the housing ombudsman rose from 2,600 in 2022 to just over 7,000 last year, more than doubling. The United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, recorded 5x growth over the same period.

Similar increases appeared in Brazilian judicial petitions and German parliamentary petitions. Researcher Chris Schmitz is studying the pattern, which he calls “agentic flooding,” in a paper covering 84 potential cases across 11 jurisdictions. The paper is due to be presented next month at the AI Ethics and Society conference.

Schmitz says the evidence does not establish that AI directly caused the increase. However, most cases were roughly flat before 2022 and then grew faster as AI tools became more widely available. Most have not slowed, suggesting that demand could continue rising.

Some filings may be adversarial or low quality, but Schmitz says most new applications come from real people with legitimate claims. He argues that AI may be reducing the administrative burden that previously stopped people from applying, creating pressure to redesign public services for the AI era.