Imagine opening your laptop on a Monday morning and your digital assistant has already drafted your meeting summary, prioritised your inbox, and prepared a first version of a briefing note.
This isn’t science fiction. It’s the near future for the UK civil service.
A landmark 2025 government trial found that using Microsoft 365 Copilot saved staff an average of 26 minutes per day — almost two weeks per person per year. Across the system, that’s thousands of hours redirected toward higher-value work.
This acceleration is why the government’s One Big Thing for 2025 – ‘AI for All’ – matters so much. It’s a statement that every civil servant, regardless of role or grade, has a part to play in the AI era. But AI for All is not the destination. It’s the beginning of a civil service skills revolution, one that will shape how we deliver for citizens in the decade ahead.
Skills civil servants need now
AI adoption in government is no longer optional. Over 70% of departments are already piloting or planning AI use in operations and decision-making.
To harness this responsibly and effectively, civil servants need to build a foundation of essential AI skills. These are some key short-term priorities.
1. AI literacy and understanding
Knowing what AI is and isn’t, how it works, where it helps, and where it must be handled with care. This includes awareness of bias, data quality, and ethics, alongside guidance from the GDS AI Playbook.
2. Tool fluency and prompt engineering
Generative AI tools like Copilot are already helping civil servants summarise documents, rework text, and draft responses. Effectiveness depends on the quality of the prompt. The ability to ask the right question, test outputs, and refine results is quickly becoming a core professional skill.
3. Interpretation and critical thinking
AI can generate suggestions, but human oversight remains essential. We must interpret, validate, and contextualise AI outputs, keeping expertise, accountability, and judgment firmly human.
4. Curiosity and experimentation
AI rewards curiosity. The more we experiment, safely and ethically, the more we uncover ways to save time, improve service, and make our work more fulfilling. A growth mindset is as vital as any technical skill.
5. Ethical and responsible use
Public trust is the cornerstone of public service. Every civil servant has a role in upholding fairness, transparency, and accountability when using AI.
Looking ahead: skills for tomorrow
The next three to five years will see AI become more powerful and deeply embedded in how we work, requiring us to anticipate and develop the skills of the near future. Civil servants will need to build strategic and systems-thinking capabilities to understand how AI connects across policies, services, and delivery models. They’ll also benefit from growing familiarity with low-code and co-design approaches, working alongside data and technology specialists to shape and refine tools that meet real-world needs.
As AI systems take on more complex tasks, skills in governance and assurance will become essential, such as understanding audit processes, risk management, and accountability frameworks that ensure responsible use. Interdisciplinary collaboration will be key, as the most effective solutions will come from bridging technology, policy, ethics, and human insight. Underpinning all of this will be adaptive learning and resilience, the ability to stay flexible, curious, and capable of evolving as technology, society, and public expectations continue to change.
These future skills will turn early AI adoption into a lasting capability, the hallmark of a modern, digital civil service.
What senior civil servants must lead on
For senior leaders, the shift to an AI-enabled civil service is about far more than personal competence — it’s about strategic leadership. Senior civil servants will need to set the vision and strategy for how AI becomes an enabler of better policy and service outcomes, ensuring technology serves purpose rather than process. They must also shape the culture, modelling curiosity, encouraging experimentation, and creating space for safe failure so teams can learn and adapt.
Strong governance and accountability will be critical, with leaders embedding responsible AI principles and clear oversight into departmental practice. Collaboration will play an equally important role, as leaders work across departments, academia, and industry to share learning and avoid duplication. Above all, communication will be key: explaining AI’s value and limitations with clarity and honesty to ministers, teams, and citizens, helping to build understanding and trust across government and society.
The challenge, and opportunity, for senior leaders is to move from AI consumers to AI architects of transformation.
A call to action
One Big Thing: AI for All is a milestone, not a finish line. 2025 marks the beginning of our civil service skills revolution, one that will empower us to harness AI responsibly, creatively, and confidently. In an era of constant technological change, agility and resilience are the ultimate meta-skills, the mindset muscles that help civil servants adapt, stay grounded, and thrive as AI, policies and possibilities continue to evolve. AI offers a generational opportunity to transform the civil service – but its true impact will come not from technology itself, but from the skills, confidence, and curiosity of our people.
So whether you’re writing policy, managing programmes, delivering services, or leading teams, ask yourself:
How can AI help me do this better?
Start small. Try a new tool. Share what works. Stay curious.
Because the future of public service isn’t written yet – we’re the ones writing it.
Tom Bryant is a trainer associate and AI and culture change specialist at CSW's sister organisation Dods Training. Check out about Dods Training's course Working Smarter with AI: Practical Prompting with Microsoft Copilot Chat here