The German Federal Employment Agency (BA) provides services for the labor market as a federal agency, in particular job placement and employment promotion. Additionally, it manages financial income replacements, such as unemployment benefits. With over 110,000 employees, it is one of the largest public authorities in Germany.
The BA operates one of the largest IT landscapes in Germany, with over 100 IT systems and around 15,000 applications for unemployment or child benefits submitted daily. At the same time, the BA faces a significant shortage of skilled workers, as around 38% of its workforce will retire within the next decade. In order to continue fulfilling its mission, IT must accomplish significantly more in much less time – without a proportional increase in available resources. The use of cloud technologies and artificial intelligence are key components in this effort. At the same time, it must BA must ensure that sensitive personally identifiable information (PII) is processed securely and in compliance with data protection regulations.
Specifically, an AI service for internal knowledge management needed to be implemented and tested quickly. However, a local AI deployment would have been very time-consuming – so a secure cloud-based LLM solution was to be used.
As part of its AI and multi-cloud strategy, the BA evaluates the use of confidential computing. To realize the use of cloud-based AI models, Privatemode was tested for the desired knowledge management solution. Privatemode, the confidential AI service from Edgeless Systems, ensures that data is encrypted not only during storage and transmission, but also during processing. Therefore, using Privatemode, the BA could easily use large language models (LLMs) from the cloud, while keeping all user data – such as AI prompts – is protected against access by cloud, model, or service providers.
With Privatemode AI, the BA very quickly set up a chatbot that is capable of answering questions using information from internal databases of its Cloud Center of Excellence. Through the Privatemode API, the knowledge chatbot can access leading open-source AI model like Llama 3.3 70B and scale without the need for own GPU infrastructure, while ensuring maximum data protection.
Below you can see pictures of a joint presentation of this case study with the head of the BA's Cloud Center of Excellence and Dr. Felix Schuster, CEO of Edgeless Systems.
