Great to speak at Government Transformation Summit yesterday, on 'move fast and fix what breaks'. That’s closer to how change must happen in government. You can’t treat public services as disposable, but you also can’t let long cycles of design and assurance slow everything down to the point where nothing really changes. It was great to be among so many friends from across the public sector landscape, and to see the progress that has been made over the past year as we all support our organisations to grapple with effective transformation and AI. I enjoyed the fireside chat with Kalbir Sohi and I'm excited about what he and DSIT colleagues will support us to achieve in the coming months. At HMRC, a lot of effort has gone into the underlying systems that make change possible - moving legacy data into a shared cloud platform, so information can be brought together and services updated without rebuilding them, and introducing a new entity resolution platform to join up customer contact and improve how complex information held across multiple systems is linked and analysed safely and securely. It’s making it easier to respond to demand and to apply AI across different parts of the organisation. We're investing in our people - recruiting and training an additional 5,500 compliance caseworkers and 2,400 debt management colleagues – and giving teams access to AI tools like Copilot and agents, supported through our Digital Academy. That’s where this starts to become tangible. Using AI and advanced analytics already helps protect and recover billions in compliance revenue each year. It’s reducing the time it takes to triage and respond to complaints, changing how we train customer advisers, and is being piloted in areas like call summarisation to take pressure out of routine activity. These are changes in how work gets done day to day. The next step is to make that consistent. Taking what works and making it routine - pilots into everyday use means being clearer about where decisions sit and avoiding a model where everything has to pass through a single central route. That means multifunctional teams focused on specific problems, supported by clear standards. Central teams set direction and manage risk, but delivery sits much closer to the services themselves. It also means designing for scale from the start, rather than proving something in one place and then trying to transpose it later. The real test is whether this shows up in outcomes: better day‑to‑day performance, a stronger customer experience, and progress on closing the tax gap. The wider environment isn’t standing still. Reality sets the pace, with or without us. And while haste should not make a virtue of imperfection, neither should perfection become the enemy of good! A special thanks to Government Transformation Magazine for organising such a great event and to the very many contributors in the room who provided help, practical and thought provoking insights

It was such an honor to be included in the conversation about scaling Agentic AI, in particular sharing how governance can enable scaling by focusing on the best opportunities. Thank you Government Transformation Magazine and Cognizant!

🌐 From Public Sector Transformation to Macro-Energy Systems: A Week of AI Horizons What a phenomenal week of deep tech architecture and cross-sector insights! It began in Westminster for the 7th Annual Government Transformation Magazine Summit on one of the hottest days in London, made even better by unboxing my new corporate MacBook and wrapped up at the Cambridge AI Business Forum (Cambridge Judge Business School) and a Thornhill Legal roundtable. Moving across these three distinct arenas made one truth clear: the challenge is no longer about AI experimentation—it is entirely about operational delivery, systemic scalability, and rigorous governance. My key takeaways: 🏛️ 1. Public Sector AI Transformation (Government Transformation Summit) Participating in 22 peer-led roundtable summits highlighted a definitive shift toward autonomous Multi-Agent systems. The Delivery Imperative: Government doesn’t need more ambition; it needs better delivery. The Responsibility Loop: "If you are not responsible FOR your AI, your AI will not be responsible." Safety and deterministic boundaries must be engineered into the underlying data infrastructure. The Legacy Remedy: Agentic AI is a critical tool for legacy modernization. We can deploy LLMs to map hidden dependencies in monolithic data warehouses and break down decades-old silos. 🌍 2. Cross-Border Data Flows (Cambridge AI Business Forum) At Cambridge Judge, the dialogue shifted toward the macroeconomics of AI. Building a resilient digital economy requires a deep understanding of cross-border data flows and platform-enabled trade. To scale safely, we must build structured, federated data access models that respect data sovereignty while allowing secure, multi-cloud interconnectivity. ⚡ 3. AI in the Energy Sector (THORNHILL LEGAL Roundtable) Connecting with experts across renewable energy, battery storage, and sustainable finance brought physical infrastructure constraints into sharp focus. Smart Grid Optimization: We explored deploying AI to dynamically balance grid capacity, absorbing surplus renewable energy and transforming data centers into active assets for grid balancing. Governance as a Catalyst: True sustainability requires effective cross-business governance models that integrate technical performance with strict ESG baselines. 🚀 Technology is hard, but systemic governance is harder. To build an agentic future that the public and private markets can trust, technical architects must stand as the bridge—translating high-level policy into concrete, secure, and sovereign data architectures. Thank you to all the brilliant minds I connected with this week! Ready to turn these insights into operational code. #AIGovernance #AgenticAI #ResponsibleAI #DigitalTransformation #PublicSector #RenewableEnergy #DataArchitecture #GovTech #CambridgeJudge

🚀 From Strategy to Delivery: Reflections from the Government Transformation Summit. 2 weeks ago, I attended the Government Transformation Magazine Summit in London, bringing together colleagues from local authorities, central government, and technology partners. These summit was a great opportunity to step back from delivery and reflect on a bigger question: 👉 How do we truly transform public services at pace and at scale? Across discussions, one theme was clear: public services are at a critical inflection point. Rising demand, workforce pressures, and financial constraints mean the current operating model is no longer sustainable. At the same time, national policy is setting out an ambitious drive in the digital world one focused on: • More joined-up, citizen-centred services • Earlier intervention and prevention • Empowering people to live more independent lives This is not a new ambition, but it is far more urgently needed. 🔄 Transformation Is Not a Tech Project, it's not just about technology, it’s about redesigning services around people. There’s a real shift happening from: Digitising existing processes ➡️ to reimagining how services are delivered end to end. That means challenging longstanding ways of working, breaking down organisational silos, and focusing on outcomes rather than systems. 💡 Key Takeaways For me, the biggest reflections coming out of the event were: • We need to be bolder: incremental change won’t meet the scale of demand • Adoption is as important as innovation: tools only deliver value when used well • Governance matters: particularly with AI, trust and transparency are critical • People remain at the heart of everything: technology should enable, not replace, human care • Keep citizens at the centre: transformation only matters if it improves outcomes and experiences • Purchasing opportunities: how much could we save if Government purchasing was consolidated? Final thoughts The ambition across government is clear and shared, it now how do we put that in action. Thank you Government Transformation for such a fab event – where I had the opportunity to meet amazing people like Aarthi Jeyaraman, Frankie Dunn, and Joanna Penrose Buckley. #GovernmentTransformation #DigitalTransformation #LocalGovernment #PublicSector #AI #GovTech #Innovation

Exciting things coming. An afternoon at No. 10 Data Science discussing our Agentic AI Workshop - more to share soon. Also met the chief mouser. Priorities firmly in order. Eoin Mulgrew Ayesha Peacock

Great to discuss Operational Delivery with cross-government leaders and industry peers yesterday at the Government Transformation event co-hosted by AWS and Snowflake. From high-profile AI projects to One log-in and traditional digital services, the transition from piloting to scaling remains a critical phase. It’s where key challenges around accountability, trust, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience often come to the surface. It was insightful to share lessons learned with colleagues across such diverse departments, including James Mitton, Kirstine Dale, Sumitra Varma, Jeremy Gould, Julia Howes, Matthew Lyon and Dimitris Perdikou. Massive thank you to Ayesha Peacock and Darshni Vaghjiani for organising another excellent session... and securing the best terrace in Westminster!

On Thursday, we were proud to sponsor Government Transformation Magazine’s Leaders’ Meet-Up in Westminster. It was an evening of honest, practical conversation about what it really takes to deliver meaningful change across government. A few themes stood out: • Embedding top technical talent accelerates delivery • Lasting impact depends on strong in-house capability, not heavy reliance on contractors • Moving AI from pilots to real outcomes requires better data foundations, clearer scaling pathways, and stronger cross-government collaboration • Many of the biggest barriers are structural and cultural, not technical It was refreshing to hear leaders focus less on hype and more on how to make transformation stick. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion. These are exactly the conversations that move delivery forward. Amul Batra Stephen Dujakovic Betty Burrell Greig Dowling Ayesha P. James #GovernmentTransformation #PublicSector #DigitalDelivery #AI #Counter

Productive and enjoyable evening at the Government Leaders Meet Up exploring digital skills, operationalising AI and building inter departmental capacity. It was insightful to catch up with people I know, including Sarah Williams Eddie Copeland Greig Dowling and to meet new people such as Amul Batra and Stephen Dujakovic. Eoin Mulgrew invited departments to pitch collaboration opportunities and Counter was insightful in supporting and contributing to the discussion. I am keen to connect with teams working on cross department pilots or capability programmes and happy to share lessons from recent work and explore how we might collaborate. #DigitalSkills #AI #PublicSector #GovTech #Collaboration Eoin Mulgrew , Counter , Eddie Copeland Greig Dowling Amul Batra Stephen Dujakovic Government Transformation Magazine

Great event run tonight by . My big takeaway was that AI is actively being used by lots of different organisations now, it's not just a prototype or idea anymore.

#London bound. Coffee fuelled. Day of planning and action for Counter's strategy to deliver on our mission in the capital. We are partnering tonight with Government Transformation Magazine at their Government Leaders Network Social. I'll be taking the opportunity to address the room and explain to them how Counter's mission is so closely aligned with the government's strategic shift to replace 7000 external contractors with permanent DDaT staff. Generating up to £500 million pounds of savings annually. I'll tell them that we are already delivering on this strategy within one of the most prominent government departments. I'll tell them how we haven't just left that department with talented consultants who are now Civil Servants, but people who have already built evergreen systems and processes that they have will now be able to maintain and iterate on as they establish their long serving civil service careers. Can. Not. Wait. Stephen Dujakovic Angela Williams Chris Hill Betty Burrell Greig Dowling Simon Price, PhD Matthew Clarke Julia Howes Eoin Mulgrew James Smith

Last week, GDS was at Government Transformation North; an event bringing together more than 200 senior leaders in digital, data, and delivery from across government to share insight, accelerate transformation, and reimagine the role of the modern state. As the digital centre of government, we were represented by: 👉 Christine Bellamy, Government Chief Product Officer, delivering a keynote about strengthening public trust in digital government. 👉 Chris Chambers,  Programme Director, National Data Library, sharing on delivering major digital and data programmes in government. 👉 Neil Hall, Deputy Director for Platform Capabilities co-hosting a series of roundtable discussions about Service Modernisation; delivering simpler, more inclusive, and more satisfying digital experiences. The event was a great opportunity to bring government and wider public sector together to reflect on the collective challenges we face, and how we can work together to accelerate digital transformation in our public services.

It was great to be at the Government Transformation Magazine conference today in Manchester. It’s really important to have events in the regions and especially relevant as Manchester is the digital thematic campus for UK Civil Service. I was on a panel discussing my experiences on transformation and government efficiency. We have a huge agenda ahead of us but it was great to hear from speakers across the public sector tackling the same challenges as HM Revenue & Customs Janet Hughes gave a fantastic opening and it was great to hear James Mitton and Simon Price, Ph.D. sharing more of HMRC’s transformation story.

Once again I forgot to take any pictures while I was there, but yesterday’s Government Transformation North event was thought provoking, inspiring and energising for our collective missions to transform public services and the value they add for all of us in society. From transformation strategies, to service modernisation, data sharing, AI governance, agentic AI and cross government insight, driving better decision making, it was a pleasure to be in the company of so many excellent colleagues public & private sector alike. Grateful to have had the opportunity to represent Ministry of Justice UK and grateful to Government Transformation Magazine for organising such an exemplary event with a stellar cast of speakers and sponsors.

It was good to connect with colleagues and transformation partners ahead of the main event today & I was thrilled to have the opportunity to speak about the amazing work we are doing in the Civil Service in the North West and our plans for the future.

Epic few days at Government Transformation North. On the panel at the Leaders Dinner and closing panel at the main event sharing our approach in Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to AI and Data strategy, Responsible AI and how I’m approaching strategic priorities as CAIO. Soooo good to give Janet Hughes a squeeze hello and hear her candid enthusiasm and meet new govt leaders delivering great transformation too. Trust came out as a key theme, great round table discussions on AI Case Studies and Responsible AI. I even managed to squeeze in a quick remote presentation to our LCR Innovation Board. Huge thanks to Government Transformation Magazine. More deliberation in my Weeknotes later this week. #AILeadership #ResponsibleAI #AIingovernment

I had the chance to attend the Government Transformation North Summit last Thursday in Manchester, and a few messages really stood out to me as a Data & Analytics professional in the NHS: 1️⃣ Data must be trusted and connected Strong governance, cleaner datasets and fewer siloes are essential for faster, safer decisions in healthcare. 2️⃣ Interoperability is non-negotiable Joined-up systems are the backbone of integrated, patient-centred care. 3️⃣ AI works best when it’s transparent and human-centred Responsible, explainable AI has huge potential but only with the right safeguards and clinical engagement. 4️⃣ Transformation only works when teams collaborate Analysts, clinicians and operational leaders need to shape change together. A great reminder of the direction we need to keep pushing in the NHS: better data, better systems, better outcomes. 🙏 Big thanks to the organisers,Government Transformation Magazine, and to all the speakers, Janet Hughes, James Mitton, Shaukat Ali Khan FBCS, Christine Bellamy, Richard Puttick, John Kelly, Sumitra Varma, Lee Dunn, Ade Bamigboye, Liam Walsh, David Swainston, Simon Short, Joanne Bradshaw, Chris Chambers, Colin Banno-Thornton, Simon Price, Ph.D., Lucia Webster, Kate Caulkin, Ruqaiya Isa ChPP MAPM, Malcolm Casimir, Phillipa Nazari, Frederica Nisha de Silva, Sara Bowley, David Dunbar, Situl Gajjar, Nayyab Naqvi, PhD MBCS, Neil Hall, Verity Hislop, Jane Brine, Dan Tippell MBCS CITP, Molly Adamat, Dean Paulley, Tommaso Spinelli, William Dorrington John Foote, Nigel Bennett, David Mitton, Pete Haddock and participants who made the discussions so insightful including and all those who joined the roundtable sessions.

Heading back to Scotland after an eventful day at Government Transformation North, Manchester. Always good to connect with colleagues from across the UK Civil Service and wider public sector, and to hear about the latest developments on transformation, data and AI. Also good to connect with industry partners. Thanks to Sam Ineson and Sam Parker at Valtech for inviting me to co-host a discussion on AI use cases. Very inspiring and insightful! Government Transformation Magazine Ayesha Peacock

Happy Monday . Last week, I had the opportunity to represent Amazon Web Services (AWS) at the Government Transformation North Summit in Manchester. What a great day !! I co-hosted the Cross Government Data Insights roundtable sessions with Chris Chambers from Government Digital Service, Simon Price, Ph.D. from HM Revenue & Customs, Pritesh Patel at Databricks alongside leaders from Government organisations. A brilliant discussion on how government can accelerate data and AI–driven transformations around Cross Government Insights . Here are the Top 10 Highlight topics of the day: 1️⃣ AI for Data Quality – automating detection of gaps and inconsistencies to build trusted data foundations. 2️⃣ Shared Insight Priorities – aligning on the cross-government metrics that matter most for impact. 3️⃣ National Data Library – a key enabler for consistent, safe, and scalable data sharing. 4️⃣ Amara’s Law – balancing short-term realism with long-term optimism about AI’s potential. 5️⃣ Clear Success Criteria – defining “good enough” early to accelerate delivery and evaluation. 6️⃣ AI Asset Visibility – knowing which models, datasets, and tools exist to reduce duplication. 7️⃣ Operationalising AI – strengthening pipelines, monitoring, and using synthetic data for safe testing. 8️⃣ Incentivising Data Sharing – building cultural and structural motivations to move from silos to collaboration. 9️⃣ Service Definition First – anchoring AI to clear user needs and service outcomes for citizens. 🔟 Improve Internal Data Flows – unlocking early value by fixing interoperability inside departments first. Start with internal Data sharing. A great reminder that transforming citizen services requires collaboration, shared ambition, and strong data foundations. Thanks to some of the great minds we met on the day . Matthew Bottomley Edward Kelly Simon McLellan Katie Goldsmith Lee Spratt Shaukat Ali Khan FBCS Paul Mooney Martha Bennett , and our wonderful AWS colleagues for preparations Joe Reay Deepak Shukla Jon Cook Faye Holt Amazing support from Greig Dowling Tabby Bilborough for being such wonderful hosts and Pritesh Patel for sharing great ideas throughout the day. Upwards and Onwards! 🚀 #aws #generativeai #analytics #databricks #datasharing #insights #publicsector

Leaving my ol' uni stomping ground in Manchester buzzing 🐝 A great couple of days at Government Transformation North discussing the focus on digital and data-driven transformation against the backdrop of the budget. Surprisingly, the B word did not dominate conversations, but it certainly brought into focus the acute need to deliver transformation of services delivered by digital, data and AI. It was a privilege to moderate an enlightening panel at the Leaders dinner with Tiffany St James, Rob Malcomson MBE Today, co-hosting Cross Government Data Insights with Chris Chambers, Simon Price, Ph.D., Harneet Singh, Matthew Bottomley, we were able to bring together views across a number of departments of the interventions needed to realise the compelling opportunities that lay before us to deliver the mission and transform citizen services. It's going to take a concerted effort across the ecosystem to deliver this... let's do it! Finally some great keynotes throughout the day... forgive me for calling out John Kelly & Chris Chambers for detailing what it requires to deliver digital and DATA programmes at scale. Government Transformation Magazine, Neil McIvor, David Mitton, Ignaz Chisuta Fischer, Edward Kelly, Kevin Gray,

Great day at the inaugural #GovernmentTransformationNorth. (Can we start every meeting with an address from Janet Hughes?!) "The average citizen wastes a week and a half of their life every year dealing with government sludge", but Janet reminded us we're all determined to change this. 📈 On the topic of AI as a vehicle for transformation, our own Graham Williamson asked UK Public Sector & industry peers if the lemon was worth the squeeze 🍋🎲 Christine Bellamy brought us back to public #trust being to key to any AI applied to services that matter. 🔒 🔑 Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)'s Minister for Transformation, Andrew Western reminded us of how far we've come already with positive change through technology (self-service and paperless approaches on the rise ✔️), and although the mission is daunting, the prize is enormous for all. 🚀 Thank you Government Transformation Magazine, and our wonderful AI Governance roundtable co-hosts, Phillipa Nazari and Richard Puttick. #servicenow #AICT #AIGovernance