The future of Generative AI in policy work
Researchers at ̽»¨ÏµÁÐ Canberra and Australian National University have undertaken national research examining the current and anticipated use of Generative AI (GenAI) in policy work.
Between November 2024 to January 2025, senior public servants from 22 state, territory, and federal government agencies participated in research to understand how GenAI is used in policy work, including perspectives of risks and enablers for adoption.
Context and scope:
In recent years, we have seen significant developments in digital technologies. Increased processing power and decreased prices for many technologies make them more accessible and provide more potential for use in a wider range of contexts. The field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made significant impact on several areas of public services, such as through chatbots and virtual assistants, data analysis, visualisation, and text recognition and processing (1).
This research study focuses on one form of AI, known as Generative AI (GenAI). Content generated might be text, image, video or audio. There are a broad range of potential applications for GenAI in the work that governments do, including, for example, supporting the development of chatbots, improving data management, and supporting employee productivity (2).Â
Given the recency with which GenAI tools have become available, there is a lack of research that explores their use in policy work in Australia. Against this background, we undertook research that is exploratory in nature to examine some early experiments with GenAI. We sought to understand how senior public servants perceived the strengths and weaknesses of these applications, the potential of GenAI for policy work, and what needs to happen to make GenAI safe to use in policy work.
Generative AI definition
A further subset of machine learning focused on the generation of outputs, such as text, images, video, or audio based on learned patterns and data inputs. Applications of generative AI seek to output content that is contextually relevant and similar to outputs created by humans given the same task (1).
- Research outputs
- Research contacts
̽»¨ÏµÁÐ Canberra and Australian National University research outputs include:
- Seminar - The future of Generative AI in policy work in Australia, to be delivered in partnership with the . Please complete a to attend. Can't join us on the day? Complete the registration to receive the webinar recording and research report after the event.
- Research Report – A research report has been prepared (link TBC). This report serves as a summary to prompt a wider conversation regarding GenAI. It is written for a non-technical audience.
If you have questions about the research and would like to discuss, please contact the Chief Investigator:Â
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Helen Dickinson |
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Professor of Public Service Research |
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02 5114 5695Â |
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