How the sector's leading voices on AI adoption came together to move public services from principle to practice  

By Chris Reynolds, Conference Producer for AI in Government 2026 

On 7th July 2026, the Institute of Government & Public Policy welcomed senior leaders from central and local government, policymakers, digital transformation specialists, and technology providers to AI in Government 2026, a day dedicated to exploring how artificial intelligence can be deployed responsibly and effectively across the public sector. 

With the UK Government having committed over £1 billion to AI development through the National AI Strategy, and the AI Opportunities Action Plan pushing for agile, sovereign, and trustworthy AI deployment, the conference landed at a pivotal moment. The message from the stage throughout the day was consistent: the strategic ambition is in place — the challenge now is delivery. 

Setting the tone: from principles to practice 

The day opened with insight from Dwayne Stewart, Principal Analyst for Central Government at GlobalData, alongside Heather Cover-Kus, Associate Director for Central Government & Education at techUK, who framed the current state of AI adoption across departments and set the scene for the discussions to follow. 

Kat Sexton, Deputy Director for Local AI at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), whose talk, "Turning National Ambition into Local Delivery", set out the Local AI programme's approach in detail. Kat's central message: build scalable tools once at the centre, then amplify and de-risk them for local use, underpinned by critical foundations of trust, data quality, and safe deployment. 

Kat was candid about the scale of the opportunity. Citing the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, she noted that AI integration could unlock an estimated £8 billion in annual time savings across local authorities in England and Wales, equivalent to 380 million hours of staff time. 

Case studies that brought the numbers to life 

Rather than staying theoretical, the programme leaned heavily on real council case studies already showing results: 

• West Oxfordshire and Cotswold District Councils — an estimated 85% reduction in time spent on admin tasks for planning officers 

• Kingston Council — average time savings of 50–60% through AI-assisted processes 

• Swindon Borough Council — translation costs cut by 99.6%, with an estimated £680,000 annual saving by 2026/27 from replacing traditional telephony 

• North Somerset Council — AI-assisted drafting of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), cutting drafting time from 2–3 weeks to around 20 minutes, with human review retained throughout 

• Westminster City Council — using AI to identify previously unassessed rateable value across advertising assets spread over a wide geographic area 

Tools like Local Transcribe and MHCLG/DSIT's Extract, which turns historic planning documents locked in PDFs and scans into usable, standardised data, were highlighted as examples of "build once, scale locally" in action, reducing duplicated spend and vendor lock-in risk across councils exploring similar solutions independently. 

A packed exhibition floor 

Alongside the main programme, delegates had the chance to engage directly with the organisations shaping the AI-in-government landscape. Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Rubrik, and BigID were among the sponsors presenting in the exhibition lounge, offering delegates practical perspectives on infrastructure, data resilience, and data governance — all recurring themes throughout the day's sessions on responsible AI adoption. 

The throughline: responsible AI, human in the loop 

Across every session, a consistent set of principles emerged: "do no harm," think transformation rather than tinkering, and never forget the human, both in the loop and at the receiving end of these services. With local government sitting on rich, repeatable, and highly automatable processes, from planning to social care, speakers were clear that the sector is uniquely well placed to benefit, provided the right foundations of trust, data quality, and governance are built first. 

The day closed with a strong sense that the national ambition set out in policy is now being matched by tangible, replicable delivery on the ground, and that the appetite among local and central government leaders to learn from each other has never been higher. 

What next? 

AI in Government 2026 showed what's possible when strategy meets delivery, but AI is only one part of the wider digital transformation story facing the public sector. Legacy IT, cyber resilience, and local government reorganisation are reshaping how services get delivered across every region of the UK. 

Join us in Manchester this November as we broaden the lens to the full government technology agenda. 

The Future of Government Technology Show and Exhibition 2026 From Strategy to Delivery: Making Digital Government Work in Every Place Manchester on 17th  November 2026  

Register your interest today → 

Use the complimentary ticket code - GovTech-CR