National AI Plan: What Government Teams Need to Know Now
The Australian Government has released the National AI Plan - a clear roadmap to build an AI-enabled economy that delivers benefits for every Australian while managing real risks. The message is simple: accelerate responsible adoption, lift capability, and protect people.
The three goals
- Capture opportunities: Attract investment in digital and physical infrastructure, grow local capability, and position Australia as a destination for future AI investment.
- Spread the benefits: Improve public services and build skills across the economy - including not-for-profits, universities, schools, TAFEs and community organisations.
- Keep Australians safe: Stand up the AI Safety Institute to monitor, test and share information on emerging capabilities, risks and harms, backed by strong legal, regulatory and ethical settings and international engagement.
Funding and programs
The Plan commits $29.9 million to establish the AI Safety Institute in early 2026. This will help government monitor risks and support agencies and regulators with guidance and testing.
To speed commercial outcomes, the Plan launches an AI Accelerator funding round through the Cooperative Research Centres program, moving ideas from labs and startups into real services. The Government has already catalysed private sector investments that could scale to more than $100 billion, with more to come.
Workforce and skills
Building capability is non-negotiable. Workers and unions will be involved in how AI is adopted so it's transparent, safe and responsibly managed.
The Future Skills Organisation is developing generalist and specialist AI and digital units across Australian Qualifications Framework levels. This gives agencies a path to upskill people in both foundational literacy and specialist roles.
Inclusion by design
The Plan sets clear expectations that benefits reach all communities - including First Nations peoples, women, people with disability and regional Australia. Policy, procurement and delivery should reflect this from the start, not as an afterthought.
Why this matters for government work
The Plan supports the Government's Future Made in Australia agenda and broader industry renewal: more high-value jobs, more Australian IP, and services that work better for citizens. For public sector teams, this is a mandate to move from pilots to delivery - with guardrails.
What your agency can do next (90-day checklist)
- Nominate an SRO for AI and confirm clear accountability across policy, service delivery, data, security and legal.
- Map current and near-term use cases (internal productivity, citizen services, compliance), and rate them by public value and risk.
- Stand up governance: model cards, risk assessments, human-in-the-loop controls, incident reporting and audit trails.
- Update procurement with AI-specific requirements: privacy, model testing, safety benchmarks, data provenance, accessibility and redress.
- Pilot safely: run time-boxed trials with evaluation plans, sandbox environments and independent review before scaling.
- Fix the data: improve data quality, metadata, security classifications and role-based access; document sources and consent.
- Lift skills: baseline AI literacy for all staff; specialist training for policy, legal, procurement, cyber, and delivery teams.
- Engage with the AI Safety Institute as it stands up: share learnings, adopt testing protocols and contribute to guidance.
- Measure outcomes: define success metrics (speed, accuracy, cost, equity) and publish transparent results.
Quotes
"The National AI Plan is about making sure technology serves Australians, not the other way around. This plan is focused on capturing the economic opportunities of AI, sharing the benefits broadly, and keeping Australians safe as technology evolves. AI will help close gaps in essential services, improve education and employment outcomes and create well paid jobs in future industries. Guided by the plan, the government will ensure that AI delivers real and tangible benefits for all Australians. As the technology continues to evolve, we will continue to refine and strengthen this plan to seize new opportunities and act decisively to keep Australians safe." - Minister for Industry and Innovation and Minister for Science Tim Ayres
"This is a plan that puts Australians first. We are making sure Australians can benefit from this transformative technology. The Government is setting out an agenda that will attract positive investment, support Australian businesses to adopt and create new AI tools, and address the real risks faced by everyday Australians. We are committed to making sure that this transformative new technology works for Australians, promoting fairness and opportunity." - Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Dr Andrew Charlton
Learn more
Read the National AI Plan and share it across your teams: industry.gov.au/NationalAIPlan.
If you're planning a skills uplift, see practical course paths by role here: Complete AI Training - Courses by Job.
Your membership also unlocks:
