Six months of the AI Capability and Enablement team
What we have built in our first six months, and how we can help your team use AI safely.
I lead the AI Capability and Enablement team at Defra. We started in March. Six months on, I want to tell you what we have built, and how we can help you.
Why we exist
Teams across Defra want to use artificial intelligence (AI). Many of them were asking us the same things. Which tools can we use? What data can we put in them? Has anyone done this before?
Our job is to make those questions easier to answer, so every team can use AI safely and well. We help teams do it themselves, and build things once so everyone can reuse them. It all lives in one place, the AI digital toolkit.
Guidance written with the AI Unit
Deliver with AI has 8 guidance pages. They cover choosing a tool, using data, keeping data safe, working with AI agents, security, ethics, sustainability and reporting an incident.
We wrote them with the AI Unit in Digital, Data and Technology Services (DDTS), so Defra speaks with one voice on AI. The rules you read in the toolkit are the same ones you will hear from the AI Unit.
The most important one is simple. You can use any AI tool, as long as you follow the rules on what data you put into it.
A tools radar everyone can use
Find a tool shows 12 AI tools, and how established each one is at Defra. 2 are in use across Defra, 3 are being trialled and 7 are being explored.
A radar is usually a picture, which is hard to use with a screen reader or on a phone. Ours starts with a table that works for everyone. The radar picture is there too, and every tool on it is a link you can reach with a keyboard.
Patterns to start from
Use AI patterns has 5 proofs of concept built and shared by Defra teams. They range from an AI assistant to cutting the cost of AI calls. Start from one of these instead of from scratch.
We also share Defra's AI skills on GitHub. These are written instructions that help AI assistants work to Defra's standards, from building a frontend to reviewing a design.
Our AI pilots
Some problems need more than guidance. Any team in Defra can send us a problem, and we score every request the same way. We take on the few where AI is the best answer, and pilot them with the team.
So far, 52 requests have come in. 4 are now being piloted, including:
- making guidance easier to find and trust, with the Rural Payments Agency
- checking spending against policy, with Defra Finance
- finding content that needs fixing, with the Defra content team
What comes next
Here is what I am most excited about next:
- building an AI platform, so we can keep up with demand for AI-enabled services
- running more pilots, so we can take on more of Defra's hardest problems
- running more training with Defra's heads of profession and their communities
- launching Ask the toolkit, so you can ask a question in your own words (more in our next posts)
- helping teams measure what their AI costs, and how well it works
We want Defra to be the best place in government to use AI well, and to share what we learn with other departments.
How to work with us
- Check an idea in 5 questions
- Read guidance on tools and data
- Reuse a pattern from Defra teams
- Send a problem and we score it
If you have an idea, start by checking it in 5 questions. Someone from the team will read your answers and decide the best next step within 5 working days. That might be:
- a pattern you can use today
- a hands-on session with one of our practitioners
- a pointer to a team better placed to help
Check if AI is right for your idea
Got an idea for what we should do next?
Email AICapabilityAndEnablement@defra.gov.uk