900. Deputy James Geoghegan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the usage of artificial intelligence within his Department; the categories of usage; the usage of artificial intelligence within any bodies under the aegis of his Department; the categories of usage; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57230/26]

I wish to advise the Deputy, that staff in my Department are provided with access to Microsoft Co-pilot Chat as part of my Department’s Internal AI Strategy. In addition, a follow-up pilot project, involving approx. 40 staff, have been given access to M365 Co-pilot. Both Microsoft Co-pilot Chat and M365 Co-pilot are in the Generative Artificial Intelligence category.

All usage of AI in my Department is in line with my Department’s AI strategy, the AI Act and the Public Service AI Guidelines and all content produced by the Department is created by staff who make responsible use of modern AI tools to support their work with robust human oversight.

In response to your question, the bodies under the aegis of this department have advised the following:

The Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery

The Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery uses artificial intelligence solely as part of its cyber security protection systems.

The National Shared Services Office (NSSO)

The NSSO has adopted its own AI strategy, which aligns with the Guidelines for the Responsible Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Public Service, prepared by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation. The NSSO currently uses the following categories of AI:

Robotic Process Automation:

This first-generation AI technology has been instrumental in improving efficiencies and streamlining service provision which the NSSO offers to its client departments.

In 2025, 1.4 million Robotic Transactions were completed and we introduced 18 new robotic processes. In total the NSSO has automated 56 processes since the introduction of RPA.

Intelligent Document Processing Technologies:

• Advanced Optical Character Recognition Reader for Medical Certificates:

This is a document intelligence service used for extracting text from medical certificates and uploading in machine readable format creating efficiencies in workflows and customer service.

• Advanced Optical Character Recognition for Invoice Matching

This is a document intelligence service used for extracting invoice information and uploading to systems of record. This is in pilot with planned rollout Q3 2026.

Digital Assistant:

The NSSO has rolled out Microsoft Copilot, an AI-powered digital assistant to some staff, with a planned rollout to all once mandatory training is complete. Its applications include, but are not limited to research, document review, email drafting, proofreading and content creation.

State Laboratory

The State Laboratory have not embedded AI into any of our processes to date.

Offices of the Ombudsman

There are currently three AI tools in use in the Office of the Ombudsman. Details are provided below:

• Vincent – A Legal Research Assistant being used in our Legal Unit.

• Articulate 360 – A platform being used in our ICT and HR units for developing training materials. The platform has an Articulate AI element, which can be used to generate dynamic and rich training templates.

• CoPilot Chat within the MS Teams client – This AI tool is being trialled by a select number of staff within the Office. It has been authorised for use as a productivity assistance tool for these staff. This AI tool has been made available with clear and detailed guidance for staff on its appropriate usage.

Note: the Office of the Ombudsman provides corporate services support (including HR/Training, Legal, ICT and other supports) to the following Offices:

Office of the Commission for Public Service Appointments

Standards in Public Office Commission

Office of the Information Commissioner

Office of the Commissioner for Environmental Information.

Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner.

Public Appointments Services

There are three AI tools/systems currently being used by PAS. These are:

• Network Detection and Response cyber security platform with AI functionality and the category of usage is Cyber Security. AI used for identifying and responding to unusual or suspicious network & email traffic.

• The recruitment platform (Oleeo) has AI and automated decision-making capability. The category of usage is Recruitment. These capabilities are currently disabled within our configuration of the platform and are therefore not in use at present.

• Turnitin is a product that we use to check submissions for originality and use of AI e.g. presentations submitted for use as part of the interview or competency examples for certain grades. Category of usage is recruitment. Detecting the use of AI in submitted documents.

Office of Public Works (OPW)

The tools/systems currently being used by the OPW are :

• The piloting of a Large Language Model (LLM) solution that is incorporated within the corporate Digital Workplace solution. The category of usage is that it is used in the main for interrogation and analysis of internal data sources, including document drafting, document comparison and for report summarisation.

• A limited number of other AI tools are made available, in accordance with the OPW Generative AI policy, as business units explore it’s potential utility on a case-by-case basis. Examples of this would include:

• Facilitating knowledge discovery, technical research and complex problem-solving

• Data analysis

• Assisting in the creation and debugging of code

• Enhancing productivity and streamlining workflows

• Generating creative content

• Transcription of speech to text

• General testing of AI functionality.