.jpg)
I spend a lot of time with senior leaders across the public sector discussing AI, and the conversation has clearly shifted. It’s no longer about curiosity or experimentation - it’s about impact, value and delivery. Attending the Microsoft AI Tour in London this week reinforced that shift.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Microsoft, Satya Nadella opened by restating Microsoft’s mission: to empower every person and every organisation in the UK and on the planet to achieve more. For public sector leaders, this translates into a very practical question: how do we deliver better outcomes, at scale, with finite resources, and how do we demonstrate return on investment?
Frontier Firm
The day centred on Microsoft’s “Frontier Firm Success Framework” which translates as: enrich employee experience, reinvent customer (citizen) engagement, reshape business processes and bend the curve on innovation.
From an executive perspective, reshaping business processes is the critical lever. Too often, transformation has focused on digitising existing ways of working. AI changes the equation. The technology now available allows organisations to redesign processes end-to-end, reducing friction, removing handoffs, and releasing capacity - but only if leaders are prepared to challenge long-established operating models.
Tracking the Metrics that Matter
Satya also emphasised the importance of defining and tracking the metrics that matter most. AI investment without clear success measures will struggle to sustain momentum. Leaders need to be explicit about the outcomes they are targeting, for example:
- Productivity
- Capacity released
- Cost avoided
- Improved access to services
- Workforce wellbeing
They then need to track those metrics from day one.
Delivering this relies on four foundations: mindset, skillset, toolset and dataset. Setting an AI-first mindset, investing in workforce capability, selecting secure enterprise-grade platforms and grounding AI in trusted data are leadership responsibilities, not technical details.
Trust remains a non-negotiable. In the public sector, AI capability must be multiplied by trust. Strong governance, security and transparency are essential. From my perspective, this needs to be balanced with momentum. While red tape and bureaucracy are realities of public sector delivery, finding ways to move at pace - within clear guardrails - is critical to realising value early, sustaining confidence and maximising ROI.
Standout Examples
There is also a shift in how AI is being deployed. Beyond insight and productivity, AI can now operate as a researcher, analyst and agent, executing workflows end-to-end. For senior leaders, this creates opportunities to rethink operating models, not just individual tasks.
Two examples illustrated this clearly.
Dragon Copilot, developed with organisations including Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, reduces the administrative burden on clinicians by automating documentation and follow-up tasks. Importantly, this is a capacity story as much as a productivity one.It’s anticipated the technology will enable the Trust to see an additional 250,000 patients annually, directly linking AI investment to improved access and measurable outcomes.
GigaTIME demonstrated AI’s potential at a system level, dramatically reducing the cost and time of cancer research and accelerating discovery - innovation with a clear line of sight to long-term value.
Interest, Intent, Action
The leadership challenge now is straightforward: move from interest to intent, and from intent to action. Define the outcomes that matter, prioritise a small number of high-impact processes, establish clear metrics and focus relentlessly on benefits realisation. Those that deliver value early,while maintaining trust, will be best positioned to justify continued investment and meet the growing expectations placed on public services.
Ready to turn your AI investments into measurable public sector value? Get in touch with us today and we can help you get started.
.jpg)
.jpg)
