AI Adoption: Built on trust, people, and tools
The APS AI Plan sets binding new governance requirements—Chief AI Officers, impact assessments, and a DTA-managed high-risk review committee—that agencies must now prepare for.
Key points
- The APS AI Plan has launched, jointly led by Finance, APSC, and DTA, structured around Trust, People, and Tools pillars.
- Agencies must appoint Chief AI Officers, designate accountable officers per use case, maintain internal AI registers, and conduct AI impact assessments.
- A new AI Review Committee managed by DTA will provide cross-government scrutiny of high-risk AI use cases.
Implications for Australian agencies
- Implement Agencies should begin scoping the appointment of a Chief AI Officer and establishing internal AI use case registers and accountable officer designations as required under the Plan.
- Implement AI governance leads should prepare for mandatory AI impact assessments and develop processes to identify and escalate high-risk use cases to the DTA-managed AI Review Committee.
- Monitor Agencies may want to monitor upcoming updates to the Policy for the Responsible Use of AI in Government, which will formalise several of these new requirements.
Implications are AI-generated. Starting points, not advice — see methodology for how they're framed.
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Weekly digest, 17 November 2025
"AI Adoption: Built on trust, people, and tools"
Source: DTA – Media Releases
Published: 20 November 2025
URL: https://www.dta.gov.au/articles/ai-adoption-built-trust-people-and-tools
The Australian Government has launched the AI Plan for the Australian Public Service, a joint initiative from the Department of Finance, APSC, and DTA. The Plan introduces a suite of new governance requirements: agencies must appoint Chief AI Officers, designate an accountable officer for every AI use case, maintain internal registers, and conduct AI impact assessments. High-risk use cases will be referred to a new AI Review Committee managed by DTA. A central AI delivery and enablement (AIDE) function will be established within Finance to support APS-wide adoption. Minister Gallagher framed the Plan as complementing—not replacing—APS workforce capability, with explicit commitments to staff consultation through Enterprise Agreements and the APS Consultative Committee.
Implications for Australian agencies:
- [Implement] Agencies should begin scoping the appointment of a Chief AI Officer and establishing internal AI use case registers and accountable officer designations as required under the Plan.
- [Implement] AI governance leads should prepare for mandatory AI impact assessments and develop processes to identify and escalate high-risk use cases to the DTA-managed AI Review Committee.
- [Monitor] Agencies may want to monitor upcoming updates to the Policy for the Responsible Use of AI in Government, which will formalise several of these new requirements.
Retrieved from SIMS, 18 July 2026.