What happened
GovAI, the Behavioural Insights Team and Apolitical surveyed 185 UK public servants (including 120 civil servants in central government departments) on day-to-day use of conversational AI. Headline findings: 95% used AI tools for work in the last month and 60% use them at least daily; 28% said AI 'significantly influences' the substance of their work at least a third of the time, and 57% expect that by 2027; respondents reported saving about three hours a week, equivalent to 8% of the work week. Usage concentrates on the bottom of the authors' 'policy stack' (information gathering and evidence synthesis), with under 20% using AI weekly for impact forecasting or decision support. Lack of trust — chiefly around accuracy and data security — was the biggest adoption barrier. The authors state a full report is forthcoming; the currently available publication is a blog post presenting headline results, so this is a watch item.
Why it matters
Provides early evidence on how civil-service AI use is maturing and where public-sector adoption is blocked, relevant to public-sector leaders and to vendors selling to government.
Action needed
Watch for the full GovAI/BIT report; use the headline data to benchmark public-sector AI-usage expectations and to plan trust-gap mitigation.