“Beyond Digital: Readying for the AI Era” explores how governments must adapt to the evolving landscape of AI-driven service delivery. McEneaney opened with a familiar challenge: citizens now consume over eight hours of digital media daily, across countless channels — and government needs to cut through with experiences that are not only engaging but trusted and accessible for all.
He outlined Adobe’s core focus areas for public sector transformation: creating high-quality content that clearly communicates government intent, modernizing documents for an AI-enabled workflow, and building immersive, reliable digital experiences. Yet, unlike private organisations, governments must design for every resident — and increasingly tailor services to individuals, on their terms, across evolving interfaces that governments no longer fully control.
McEneaney highlighted a key shift: large language models are becoming the primary gateway between citizens and government information. This means agencies must optimise for discoverability, accuracy, and trustworthiness in ways they’ve never needed to before.
To assess readiness, Adobe expanded its annual Digital Government Index, measuring 115 agencies globally (15 in Australia), using updated indicators that look beyond traditional website performance and accessibility toward personalization and AI readiness. Australia ranked second overall, averaging 7/10 — a positive yet still signifying a long road ahead.
Under the surface, citizen expectations are expanding faster than government improvements. While site speed and accessibility have seen incremental gains, fragmentation across agencies still produces inconsistent service journeys, leaving satisfaction flat. Personalisation remains limited, especially in registration, login, and complex form experiences.
A standout finding: despite faster websites, site authority and platform health across Australia are declining, which reduces the likelihood that government content will become a trusted source for AI-driven systems. Multilingual content and readability also lag nationally.
But NSW remains the exception. Out of 113 assessed agencies nationwide, NSW ranked #1, achieving perfect scores in accessibility, readability, and multilingual content — leading not just domestically but globally.
Looking ahead, McEneaney emphasised three essentials for governments preparing for the AI horizon:
Trust & Authority — fast, credible, structured, and authoritative digital sources.
Brand-Relevant Content — policy information that adapts to user personas, not just one-size-fits-all pages.
AI-Ready Platforms — systems optimised for discoverability, personalisation, and future agent-based service delivery.
