“If ministries use AI merely to accelerate current processes, they’ll create sophisticated digital assistants rather than intelligent, autonomous systems and workers that can deliver genuine transformation,” Kalpala said, noting that getting into bed with big AI would never be risk-free.

“Single vendor partnerships create dangerous dependencies,” he pointed out. “A more sensible approach would involve specialist AI companies with deep sector knowledge, such as healthcare AI firms for the NHS or defense technology specialists for security services. These focused partnerships would reduce vendor lock-in risks.”

Hilary Stephenson, managing director of usability design company, Nexer Digital, also has doubts. To fulfil its ambitions, she argued, the government will need to develop inhouse AI knowledge and not simply outsource all the thinking to external partners.