A survey of 30 UK government departments shows adoption has reached 100%, up from 81% a year ago. That headline is harder to argue with than it looks. The follow-on figures are more telling: only 30% of departments have issued a general instruction to staff to use AI for productivity or service improvement — up from 10% last year, but still leaving most of Whitehall treating AI as discretionary rather than standard practice.
Sixty-three percent of departments now have a formal AI strategy (75% of ministerial departments), up from 35% in 2025. A further 13% plan to create one. That leaves a significant proportion operating without structured guidance on how to develop their use of AI in a coordinated way.
The Government has put a figure on what widespread adoption could deliver — £45 billion in annual savings, roughly 3.3% of public spending. That has not been expressed as a target. Where individual departments have set saving targets through AI, they remain modest: HM Treasury's benchmark is a net saving of approximately 1.5% through AI and automation by 2028-29.
The National Audit Office flagged in July 2026 that securing sufficient AI and specialist IT skills within the public sector is a significant implementation risk. The research also found that 20% of departments are now using AI in recruitment, bringing with it documented risks around bias and digital exclusion.
Nick Mattison, partner at Mattison Public Relations, said Andy Burnham's new AI taskforce needs to move quickly, and that ambitious target-setting for savings is the missing mechanism for building momentum in public sector adoption.
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