The federal government will invest $225 million into AI for its own use over the next four years, largely via the GovAI service and enablement functions.<\/p>\n
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The funding is one of the centrepiece technology-related allocations in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook or MYEFO, a regular budget update traditionally announced in the lead-up to Christmas.<\/p>\n
iTnews first revealed the existence of GovAI<\/a> back in July.\u00a0It has multiple components,<\/a> but at its heart is a sovereign-hosted AI service for whole-of-government use, and associated training and enablement programs.<\/p>\n Of the $225.2 million allocated to GovAI, $166.4 million can be spent in the first three years on expanding the GovAI platform and on the \u201cdesign, build and pilot [for] a secure, AI assistant\u201d called GovAI Chat.<\/p>\n The funding appears to be gated. It’s based on the program achieving certain milestones, mirroring the incremental approach taken by other jurisdictions to fund technology programs.<\/p>\n At the outset, there will be $28.5 million available to Finance and the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) \u201cfor initial work and assurance\u201d.<\/p>\n Pending the outcome of that work, including \u201ca further business case and mid\u2011pilot assessment report\u201d, a further $137.9 million will be made available.<\/p>\n In addition, Finance has landed $28.9 million over four years from FY2025\u201326 \u201cto establish a central AI delivery and enablement function\u201d.<\/p>\n The Australian Public Service Commission and the DTA will also receive $22.1 million over four years – and $400,000 a year after – \u201cto deliver foundational AI capability building activities and a coordinated workforce planning initiative to help agencies manage AI\u2011driven changes in job design, skills and mobility.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, the DTA gains a further $7.7 million over four years \u201cto strengthen its AI functions and establish an AI review committee to provide expert advice on high\u2011risk government AI use cases.\u201d<\/p>\n The review committee members will be handpicked from across the Australian public service.<\/a><\/p>\n Finance minister Katy Gallagher said last month that the government wanted \u201cevery public servant to have access to secure generative AI directly from their laptop\u201d.<\/p>\n As part of the government\u2019s AI push, departments and agencies will also each need to appoint an executive overseer, equivalent to a chief AI officer.<\/p>\n While there is some lead-time for this to occur – mid-2026 – an iTnews analysis showed that entities are divided on how to meet the requirement.<\/a><\/p>\n The majority intend to incorporate AI responsibilities into an existing executive\u2019s role, although a small number say they will recruit a standalone chief AI officer.<\/p>\n