Rethinking Civil Service Value in the Age of AI

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been experimenting with generative AI assistants to see what it can do and how it might help me in my work. I process ideas verbally, and with my team geographically dispersed, I’ve found fewer opportunities to do that in real time. I have found Co-pilot to be a useful way of exploring ideas and I have been pleasantly surprised at its ability to take my thoughts, ramblings and reflections and help me shape them into a coherent narrative.

This experience got me thinking more deeply about the nature of work in the civil service. So much of what we do is writing: submissions, briefings, minutes, strategies. What if AI could take on the machinery of government, the drafting, the formatting, the version control, and free us up to do things like meaningful engagement with stakeholders, deeper exploration of systemic impacts, and more thoughtful, inclusive design of services.

If AI can do the writing, what does that mean for how we work? Do we have the right mindset for a future where thinking, not writing, is the core currency of value?

The Current State of Play

In public service, writing is more than a means of communication, it’s how ideas are shared, how decisions are made, and how influence is exercised. The written word is the primary vehicle through which civil servants contribute, collaborate, and become known.

Hours, sometimes days, are spent drafting, redrafting, formatting, and circulating documents. And while these outputs are often necessary, they come at a cost. Time spent writing is time not spent engaging with stakeholders, exploring systemic impacts, or thinking creatively about solutions.

But there’s a deeper, more personal dimension to this too. If writing is how value is demonstrated, then it’s also how identity is formed. Civil servants often feel a strong sense of ownership over the papers they produce. It’s not uncommon to see discomfort when others rewrite drafts and pride at having your name appears at the top of ministerial briefings. This isn’t just ego; it’s a reflection of how we’ve come to measure contribution.

As leaders, we encourage this dynamic. We often judge quality and potential by the strength of someone’s writing. For many early career civil servants, the first time they become visible to senior leaders or ministers is through a paper they’ve authored. Success, in part, is tied to the ability to write well. Even our recruitment processes reinforce this: the first hurdle is often a written application, where candidates must distil their achievements into 250 words. How many talented individuals have we sifted out because they couldn’t tell their story in the right way?

This is not to diminish the importance of writing. Clarity of thought and expression will always matter, but so too does empathy, collaboration, systems thinking and innovation. If AI can take on the writing, what happens to the rest?

The Promise of AI

AI Tools can already draft submissions, summarise consultations, synthesise evidence, and reformat documents , often in seconds. While the outputs still require human oversight and judgment, the time saved is significant and this has so much potential to release capacity in our workforce. The real promise of AI lies not just in efficiency, but in what it enables us to do instead. With less time spent feeding the machinery, civil servants could spend more time:

• Thinking systemically about the long-term consequences of decisions.

• Engaging meaningfully with the people affected by policy and services.

• Exploring innovative ideas that don’t fit neatly into a template or timeline.

• Building stronger networks across government, creating the space for joined-up policy, shared learning, and more coherent responses to complex challenges.

AI also has the potential to democratise access to influence. If the ability to write well is no longer the gatekeeper to visibility and progression, we can better value a broader range of skills, listening, facilitating, connecting, challenging, that are just as vital to good government.

Realising this promise isn’t automatic. It requires us to rethink roles, redesign workflows, and reimagine what good looks like. It also requires trust in the technology, but more importantly, in the people who use it. There’s a risk that AI could make things worse before they get better. If writing is no longer a barrier, some may be tempted to do less not more. Without a shift in expectations, we could end up with faster papers but shallower thinking. That’s why leadership matters now more than ever.

We need to set new expectations. We need to reward curiosity, collaboration, and courage. We need to create space for civil servants to engage, to experiment, and to learn. And we need to reconnect people with the purpose of public service not as a job, but as a vocation.

Rethinking Value in the Civil Service

As AI begins to automate the visible parts of our work, we must become better at recognising the invisible ones. That means rethinking how we assess performance, how we reward contribution, and how we define leadership. It means valuing:

• Curiosity over certainty.

• Collaboration over individual authorship.

• Systems thinking over siloed expertise.

• Empathy and listening over polished prose.

It also means being honest about what we’ve historically overlooked. If our recruitment and promotion systems have privileged those who write well, we may have unintentionally excluded those who think differently, speak differently, or work differently. AI gives us a chance to rebalance; to build teams that are more diverse in thought, background, and approach.

As a leader, I’ve found myself talking more and more about the behaviours that matter not just the outputs. I tell my team that writing papers isn’t the job; it’s how we communicate the job. The real work is asking questions, engaging with others, and thinking critically about the systems we operate in.

I encourage collaboration at every stage not just in delivery, but in the thinking itself. I remind my team that good strategy starts with good networks. They’re lucky, in a way: having a coffee with a peer is “work” if it helps them see their business area through a different lens. I’ve started telling people to expand their networks. If they only speak to people in our Department, they should reach across government. If they only speak to people in government, they should connect with those outside it.

These are the behaviours I want to see more of. But I also know that what gets rewarded gets repeated and right now, we don’t always have the tools to measure or recognise these contributions. That’s the next challenge: how do we build systems that value not just what’s written, but how people think, connect, and lead?

Conclusion

The civil service stands at a crossroads. Generative AI is not just a new tool it’s a catalyst for rethinking how we work, what we value, and how we serve.

If we harness it well, we can move beyond the endless drafting, formatting, and circulating, and reclaim time for the things that matter: engaging with people, thinking systemically, building networks, and designing better services. We can create space for curiosity, collaboration, and challenge. We can build a civil service that is more human, not less.

But this future won’t arrive by accident. It requires leadership, intention, and a willingness to let go of old signals of value. It requires us to ask hard questions about who we reward, what we measure, and how we support people to grow. And it requires us, as leaders, to set new expectations not tomorrow, but today.