AI could free 30,000 civil servants from routine admin, study finds

Times

3 days ago

Nearly 30,000 civil servants could be freed from carrying out routine admin every year if AI is rolled out across Whitehall, a government study has suggested.
More than 20,000 civil servants across Whitehall took part in a three-month trial to use generative AI for help with tasks such as drafting documents, summarising meetings, and handling emails.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said this saved the equivalent of giving 1,130 full-time workers out of the 20,000 a full year back every year.
Extrapolated across the whole civil service workforce of 514,395 people, the trial suggests 29,063 could be freed up for other work using AI.
It comes as a study from the Alan Turing Institute found AI could support up to 41 per cent of tasks across the public sector.
The artificial intelligence institute found that teachers spend nearly 100 minutes a day on lesson planning but up to 75 per cent of this could be supported by AI, while civil servants spend about 30 minutes daily on emails, where it is believed AI could cut this effort by more than 70 per cent.
Civil servants in the government trial used AI to cut through jargon and streamline consultations, while work coaches utilised it to speed up support for jobseekers. They used tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot to assist with drafting documents, summarising lengthy emails, updating records, and preparing reports.
Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, will highlight the results alongside Sir Tony Blair at the SXSW London festival on Monday. The two will discuss reimagining government and public service delivery in the age of AI.
Last month, a separate government trial found AI is more impartial than civil servants in analysing responses to new policies and consultations.
A new AI tool to sort responses to public consultations found that about 75,000 days of work could be saved, while civil servants themselves said it removed opportunities for them to 'project their own preconceived ideas' into processes and 'takes away the bias and makes it more consistent'.
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Consult, the new tool that will be used across government, is part of Humphrey — a bundle of AI tools being used across Whitehall and named after Sir Humphrey Appleby, the fictional permanent secretary in Yes Minister.
The tool categorises responses under broad headings and assigns them based on whether they agree or disagree with proposals or if they are unclear.
At present this is done manually by civil servants who comb through about 500 consultations a year, with responses in the thousands.
The tool will also help with the increasing number of template responses to consultations organised by campaign groups. However officials also said there was a rise in the number of campaigning organisations that encouraged people to use AI to write consultation responses, which could lead to a situation where AI is analysing responses written using AI.The trial of Consult was used to analyse responses to a Scottish government consultation on cosmetic procedures.
Testers found that the majority of the time the AI agreed with what a human reviewer would have said.
Officials who worked with Consult on the test said they were 'pleasantly surprised' that AI analysis provided a 'useful starting point' in its initial analysis, with others noting that it ultimately 'saved [them] a heck of a lot of time' and allowed them to 'get to the analysis and draw out what's needed next'.
Kyle said: 'These findings show that AI isn't just a future promise — it's a present reality. Whether it's helping draft documents, preparing lesson plans or cutting down on routine admin, AI tools are saving civil servants time every day. That means we can focus more on delivering faster, more personalised support where it really counts.'