The latest Public Accounts Committee hearing, chaired by Sir Geoffery Clifton-Brown MP, questioned top civil servants about the effectiveness of artificial intelligence (AI) use across government departments, and plans to roll out more systems.

Artificial intelligence is already being used in government to ‘support agents’ revealed Sarah Munby, permanent secretary for the Department of Science, Innovation and Science. ‘At the moment there are a couple of different products in government that support agents who work directly with the public, for example in call centres,’ Munby told MPs.

‘In essence a sort of behind-the-scenes chat bot that helps them search faster for the information for the person who they are interacting with might need.’