Digital NSW 2025: Navigating Trust, Transformation, and Technology

Public Sector Network's Digital NSW Showcase has become a cornerstone for exploring the challenges and opportunities in government digital transformation. This year’s focus on inclusivity, sustainability, and trust within the New South Wales Digital Strategy underscores the importance of aligning policy, technology, and citizen engagement. A series of real-time polls provided invaluable insights into the priorities and concerns of attendees, which reflect broader trends and challenges in the public sector.

1. Transparency Takes the Spotlight: Why It’s the Pillar of Digital Trust

Results unveiled transparency as the leading factor for building digital trust. This aligns with insights shared by senior leaders of the New South Wales Research Innovation Council, who identified transparency as a critical measure to address public trust concerns. Participants also emphasised cyber security as a significant opportunity, reflecting growing concerns about digital safety as a barrier to public participation in government services. These findings reinforce the importance of prioritising clear communication, secure data practices, and accountability to maintain and enhance trust in digital government initiatives.

2. Continuous Learning Wins: The Secret to Building Digital Skills

A clear majority of participants selected fostering a culture of continuous learning and emotional intelligence as the key priority. This result underscores the importance of embedding adaptability and lifelong learning into the public sector workforce. Additionally, while other options such as revamping recruitment strategies and partnering with tech industry leaders received support, the dominant preference for fostering a learning culture highlights a need for internal capability-building as the foundation for future digital innovation.

3. Simplify or Stagnate: The Key to Boosting Productivity Through Digital Services

Simplifying access to government services emerged as the dominant priority, underscoring the critical need for user-friendly, streamlined digital interactions. This choice reflects a strong focus on improving the citizen experience and ensuring seamless service delivery across all levels of government. Supporting priorities, such as cross-agency digital integration and enhanced data sharing, are complementary strategies that would further enable simplified access while fostering intergovernmental collaboration.

4. AI Shockwave: Are We Prepared for Its Unchecked Rapid Growth?

The audience's response to the AI poll reflects a sharp, collective unease about the accelerated progression of artificial intelligence within public service contexts. When asked whether the New South Wales public service has sufficient guardrails in place to ensure safe innovation and responsible use of AI in 2025, a swift majority responded negatively.

This result signals a profound concern not just about current assurances but about the pace at which AI is developing. The apprehension stems from the sheer speed of AI advancements, which risks outpacing the establishment of ethical, regulatory, and operational frameworks required for safe implementation. This mirrors broader sentiments expressed at previous PSN events, where stakeholders noted that AI, while transformative, presents risks that many feel unprepared to manage.

The sentiment underscores the urgency for accelerated policy action, robust governance models, and widespread dialogue to address these risks proactively. With AI set to feature prominently in sessions throughout the day, this poll result serves as a wake-up call to the public sector’s leaders about the need for a coordinated and forward-looking approach to AI readiness.

Conclusion

Across all polls, a common theme emerged: building trust, improving skills, and simplifying access to government services are paramount for a digitally empowered and inclusive New South Wales. The results offer valuable insights into where public sector efforts should be concentrated and provide a roadmap for addressing critical challenges in transparency, digital skills development, service delivery, and AI governance.