The Digital Transformation Agency's Policy for the responsible use of AI in government sets out the Australian Government approach to embrace the opportunities of AI and provide for safe and responsible use of AI. Transparency is critical to building public trust and is an important aim of the policy and broader APS Reform agenda.
National Archives is dedicated to ongoing refinement and enhancement of our AI capabilities. We will be transparent as we enable and prepare, engage, monitor, adopt, review, evolve, integrate and pivot to changes in AI, the technology environment and Government policy requirements.
Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer
The National Archive' Assistant Director-General Technology is the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, responsible for leading organisational change and innovation, accelerating AI capability development and identifying opportunities for AI to enhance efficiency, policy and resource allocation.
Accountable Official
The National Archives' Chief Information and Data Governance Officer is the accountable official for Artificial Intelligence within Archives, including implementation of Australian Government policy requirements. This includes ensuring National Archives is positioned for monitoring, measurement and capability development with AI. Central to this is a strong approach to governance, seeking to balance a culture of risk management with innovation.
Governance
The National Archives Access to publicly available Artificial Intelligence policy, outlines our principles, our risk tolerance, and the approval process for business use of publicly available AI. The Archives uses the Information and Data Governance Committee (IDGC) for consideration of AI business cases.
National Archives has processes to ensure that our:
- AI access and use is appropriately governed and monitored – AI tools and users are registered
- engagement with AI is confident, safe and responsible – AI tools are Cyber assessed and staff are trained
- staff have the knowledge and capability to use AI appropriately – mandatory AI training is implemented
- stakeholders have trust in our use of AI – all use of AI is declared, and
- risks are identified and addressed – all specific business use cases include risk and ethics assessments.
AI use by National Archives according to usage patterns and domains
National Archives is using AI only in the corporate and enabling domain, focussing on refining ways of working and trialling AI functionality that enhances archival processes. We do not use AI in any decision-making processes or public interaction, and all possible efforts are taken to protect the public against negative impacts.
The primary use cases for internal AI relate to:
- open access document text summarisation
- transcription and content extraction
- description extraction and enhancement
- ideation, and
- text review and refinement.
This AI use is supported by business cases that seek to improve processes or productivity. This includes general staff access to approved AI tools. Internal measures have been put in place to mitigate risk and monitor effectiveness.
Review
This statement will be reviewed annually, when making a significant change to our approach to AI, or when any new factors impact this statement.
For further enquiries, contact us through our online contact form.
Authorisation
Authorised by:
Assistant Director-General, Technology
7 January 2026