143 PUBLIC SECTOR sovereignty for governmental organisations and allay their fears about data protection so they can reap the benefits of AI.” To further alleviate their concerns about the potential misuse of AI, governmental organisations can develop best practices to control how its employees and partners develop, implement and use such tools. Microsoft, for example, follows six key principles when developing its AI technology: inclusiveness, fairness, accountability, transparency, reliability and safety, and privacy and security. “By following these core values, we can design, build and operate AI solutions that are trustworthy, secure, reliable and deliver accurate, non-biased results that uphold societal and ethical principles,” says Arthur. “Organisations should take a similar approach and also develop ethical decision-making frameworks to ensure they retain human oversight over their AI tools and comply with legal, ethical and regulatory requirements.” Training employees how to use AI tools and follow responsible use principles is vital. “Governments can’t assume everyone will happily adopt AI solutions or instantly know how to use them,” says Arthur. “Instead, they must explain how AI will benefit individuals in their specific role and train them to use it properly, for example by teaching them how to write effective prompts so they get the result they want. This will encourage widespread adoption and ensure organisations maximise their AI investments. We always advocate for humans to be kept in the loop whenever AI is deployed too.” The Public Investment Corporation (PIC), an asset management firm fully owned by the South African government that mainly serves public sector entities, took this approach when it deployed Copilot. The organisation initially rolled out Microsoft 365 Copilot to 50 users, who reported that, on average, they were able to rapidly analyse high volumes of documents to process and approve investment opportunities in six months rather than 12. To drive adoption, PIC built a ‘champions’ network’ and used its knowledge platform, Tech Lounge, to share Copilot insights and success stories from business users. Since then, PIC has experienced a 1,000 per cent surge in demand for Copilot licences. “Microsoft offers various training courses and resources – such as the Public Sector Center of Expertise and Digital Skills – to help governments teach their employees how to optimise their AI investments,” says Arthur. Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report indicates that 80 per cent of the global workforce currently lacks the time or energy to do their jobs, not least because they are interrupted by a meeting, email or notification every two minutes. To overcome this issue, 82 per cent of leaders expect to use digital labour to expand and support their workforce in the next 12 to 18 months, and 46 per cent of organisations are already using agents to fully automate workstreams or business processes. In addition, the report suggests there is a new type of organisation emerging – the Frontier Firm, which is built around intelligence on tap and human-agent teams. Currently, 71 per cent of workers at these firms say that their company is thriving. “AI is rewriting the rules of business and driving a seismic shift in the way we work,” says Arthur. “Many people have used AI in their personal lives and they’re excited by what it can do, so they want to use it at work too. If governments don’t equip employees with AI tools, they will likely use commercially available AI tools that may unintentionally expose sensitive personally identifiable information – not out of malice, but just because they are trying to do their jobs better. It’s incumbent on them to find a way to introduce secure enterprise AI tools to support their employees to work more productively and free them up to focus on the main reason they joined the public sector – making a real difference to the lives of others. “Digital transformation has been a buzzword for at least the last decade, but the growing number of successful AI implementations worldwide shows the technology is fundamentally altering how organisations operate. AI is the technology zeitgeist of our era. We’re not just talking about it in the technology and business worlds; we’re seeing it referenced on TV and in movies, talking about it with friends, and using it in our daily lives. Not only is AI boosting employee productivity and satisfaction, but it is also empowering governments to reimagine their processes, develop services that would previously have been impossible and improve the lives of their citizens.”
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