Leading firms have been invited to join civil service tech experts to start work on a prototype of a ‘helper’ that ministers hope could be rolled out to the populace

Government has proposed a state-run “AI agent” that citizens could deploy to help with day-to-day administrative tasks.

At the start of this week, government invited representatives of companies specialised in agentic artificial intelligence to “team up with in-house Whitehall experts to test this technology together”. Ministers hope that, over the next six to 12 months, firms will support the creation of a prototype agent by taking steps “to share their expertise and dedicate AI specialists to… a hybrid team” where they will work alongside civil servants.

The ultimate aim is to create a government-run tool that would be available to the public to “take on boring life admin by dealing with public services on your behalf – from filling in forms to completing applications and booking appointments”.

The technology will initially be deployed to help people with tasks related to employment, education and skills by providing them with tailored advice. In the future, government intends to “experiment to see if agentic AI can help with other life milestones… [and] help you update an address on your digital driving licence, register you with a new GP, register you in the correct constituency to vote and more”.

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Over the coming months, the new tool will be built using the “Scan, Pilot, Scale” approach set out in government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan published earlier this year.

Having now completed initial scanning work, engaging with the AI firms marks the commencement of the pilot phase. Going forward, “the technology will be built in small and iterative stages… [and] the project will be evaluated before it progresses to the next stage”.

The first stage will include “some early prototyping and exploration of what data is already available to make further development possible”.

If this and subsequent phases are successful, government believes that the technology – which it stressed would be “entirely optional to use”– could be deployed nationwide from around the end of 2027.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle said: “We can entirely rethink and reshape how public services help people through crucial life moments using the power of emerging AI technology. Using agentic AI to its full potential, we could provide a level of service to citizens across the country that was previously unimaginable – helping people to find better career opportunities, avoid wasting their time on government admin and more. We are asking the world’s brightest AI developers to work in collaboration with our own brilliant AI teams as we test how valuable their latest tech can be in helping people in their day-to-day lives. At each step, we’ll only progress if the technology can be used in a safe and reliable way – but if it works, we could be the first country in the world to use AI agents at scale.”