A quarter of civil servants have reported that using artificial intelligence to assist with their work is saving them at least an hour every week.
The results of the 2025 Civil Service People Survey, which were published last week, included answers to two questions about AI use and expectations that were asked for the first time in last autumn’s civil-service-wide feedback exercise.
One question asked respondents whether using AI for their work saved an hour or more over the course of a week. The other sought expectations of the extent to which the technology will change their job over the next five years.
Across all departments and agencies, 27% of respondents said AI is saving them at least an hour every week.
Staff at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology – which is also home to the Government Digital Service – were the most likely to report AI-related time savings, with 57% saying they saved at least an hour a week by using artificial intelligence.
Responses also indicated that at least 50% of officials at HM Treasury, the UK Space Agency, the Government Actuary’s Department, the Department for Business and Trade and Building Digital UK notched up an hour or more of time savings.
At the other end of the scale, staff at the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service were least likely to report time-savings related to AI, with just 6.5% of officials claiming to have gained an hour by using the technology.
HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions were the lowest-scoring major departments. Only 22% of staff reported AI-related time savings of an hour or more over the course of a week.
In answer to the People Survey’s second question on AI,76% of civil servants said the technology is likely to change how they do their current job over the next five years.
Both the highest and the lowest expectations came from organisations in Scotland.
Ninety-seven percent of respondents from the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator said they expected AI to change the way they do their jobs over the next few years.
However, just 38% of respondents from the Scottish Prison Service felt the same way.
According to the People Survey data, 83% of HM Treasury respondents expected AI to change the way they do their job over the coming years.
Last week, HM Treasury announced the creation of a new external group that will advise government on ways to scale up AI use in departments and the wider public sector.
Chief secretary to the Treasury James Murray said the group, which includes IBM, Faculty AI and the Tony Blair Institute, had vital insight and challenge to offer departments and public sector bodies in relation to their AI plans.
“These people are exactly who can help us create change across the public sector – giving us the hard truths on our approach to AI and advising where we need to prioritise our investment to support real efficiencies,” he said.
The 2025 Civil Service People Survey was carried out between 23 September and 21 October last year. It drew 343,961 responses from civil servants at 102 organisations.