Future-Ready Government: Using Digital, Data and AI to Improve Community Outcomes

Digital transformation in health is about much more than modernising internal systems.

As populations grow, community expectations change and pressure on traditional service models increases, digital capability can create new ways to deliver care, plan services and better understand community need.

For Skye Jacobi, Acting Deputy Director-General, Health, ACT Health and Community Services Directorate | ACT Government, digital transformation is an important part of thinking about the long-term sustainability of the ACT health system and how services can better meet people where they are.

Ahead of Government Innovation Showcase Federal 2026, Public Sector Network spoke with Skye about the role of digital transformation in future health service delivery, making better use of data, the practical opportunities for AI, building trust around sensitive information and why collaboration across government will be critical.

Skye will continue the conversation in the ACT Digital Futures panel “Future-Ready Government: Leadership, Data and AI for Better Community Outcomes” alongside Sam Engele, Deputy Director-General Environment, Planning and Policy, City and Environment Directorate, Daniel Bray, Executive Branch Manager, Design and Strategy, Digital Canberra, and Dr Holger Kaufmann, Chief Information Officer and Executive Group Manager, Digital Health | Digital Canberra.

Explore the event: Government Innovation Showcase Federal overview | Register for the event

Interview with Skye Jacobi

Public Sector Network: As Acting Deputy Director-General of Health in the Health and Community Services Directorate, how are you thinking about digital transformation in health as a way to improve outcomes for the ACT community, not just modernise internal systems?

Skye Jacobi:
In the ACT, we have a health system governance where we have a strategy driven through the Health and Community Services Directorate, particularly long-term system planning.

We're really well supported by Digital Canberra in terms of the system architecture and driving some of those changes.

From the Health and Community Services Directorate strategy perspective, we really do see digital transformation as essential in terms of our long-term system thinking about sustainability for the ACT, and also about meeting consumers in terms of contemporary service delivery and what consumers need.

We know the ACT is a growing region. We are a service provider for a region, not just the city of Canberra.

There are many options in terms of how we can enhance current models of care to better reach the needs of some of our community, potentially some people in surrounding New South Wales, but also many people who can access care closer to home in Canberra.

Particularly where there is evidence that the model of care is high quality and safe, they don't necessarily need to travel to a bricks-and-mortar hospital.

We also know with population growth that we can't keep building more and more hospitals.

Digital modalities for care are going to be really essential for how we deliver care in Canberra in the future.

Public Sector Network: Health is one of the most data-rich areas of government. What opportunities do you see for better use of data to support planning, demand management and more responsive services?

Skye Jacobi:
This is an area of a lot of interest in the ACT at the moment.

There's recently been a Legislative Assembly independent inquiry led by Michael Walsh, the former Director-General of Queensland Health, looking at health system data, demand and processes.

It's made us think a lot about the importance of having high-quality, trusted data in your health system to support your planning and your operations.

We know in the ACT that our population is growing and changing a lot. There's a lot of diversity.

Although you can look at an overall aggregate picture of the ACT and think that it's relatively high socioeconomic status compared with other jurisdictions, there are a lot of pockets of need.

We need to be able to better understand some of that in terms of mapping health service provision with the needs of our community.

It's really important that we've got transparency about performance of the system for our community, but it's also really important that there's quality information supporting some of the collective decision-making we're having to make about the health system and working with our clinicians.

We also know in the ACT that our health services have changed a lot.

One of the things the Walsh inquiry is pointing to is the need for updated planning based on evidence-based data.

We've come through COVID, and we've also moved North Canberra Hospital into our health service provision as a public health service provider in the last five years.

There are a lot of opportunities for data to support our planning and our thinking about how to provide the best care for people into the future.

Public Sector Network: Where do you think AI can have the most practical impact in health and community services? Is it policy design, workforce support, patient experience or system performance?

Skye Jacobi:
It probably has impacts in many of those areas.

Being in the Directorate, I'm more in the policy design and planning space, so I would comment more about that, but I certainly appreciate many of the applications for service provision, particularly around the use of scripts and some of the capability in diagnostics and other areas.

I can certainly see, in terms of some of the data modelling and forecasting that we need to do, the richness that AI might be able to provide us in terms of insights.

We have lots of issues at the moment in terms of being able to unpack some of our datasets and needing to overcome some of the qualitative information that sits in them.

We also know that, going into the future, health service provision is increasingly going to look at individual patient pathways.

We're going to need to be able to use AI tools and other tools in terms of some of our data and analytical capability.

Public Sector Network: Public trust is especially important when health data is involved. What does ethical governance look like when government agencies are exploring AI and more advanced data use in sensitive service areas?

Skye Jacobi:
I think this is a really big theme in the Walsh report about the trust that's important in data.

We need our communities to trust the information that we're utilising, that it's well informed and accurate, and that we're publishing things that help people understand the system.

In terms of how you think about trust with AI, I think we always have to think about AI as a tool.

We are ultimately looking at enhancing some of our models of care, so I don't necessarily want to think, in terms of how we plan in the ACT, that AI is the answer.

It becomes a modality or a tool that helps us get a better outcome.

I'd hope that we frame it that way, but there also need to be very clear quality and safety frameworks that sit across our application of AI so that it's always utilised in a way that supports high-quality care.

Public Sector Network: Health outcomes are shaped by many factors beyond the health system itself. How can strong collaboration across ACT Government directorates help improve policy, planning and service delivery for communities?

Skye Jacobi:
Collaboration is a really big theme, and system governance is a really big theme that has come up in the Walsh inquiry.

It's highlighted in the ACT that we're one health system, but at the moment we have four agencies across the health and community service structure.

We also have delivery of infrastructure through Infrastructure Canberra and digital delivery through Digital Canberra.

Having very clear pathways in terms of how we collaborate as one health system, and having a very connected view about what the long-term objectives and vision are for the ACT system, is really important.

I think we also have an opportunity in the ACT as a right-sized jurisdiction for a lot of collaboration.

We have very close connections with the community sector, and we have a lot of opportunities where we can potentially provide nation-leading approaches to how we plan as a whole jurisdiction and look across the community sector as well.

Public Sector Network: Speaking about collaboration, why do you think it's important for events like this to take place and for government to come together, network and collaborate?

Skye Jacobi:
I think it's becoming an emergent piece in terms of health service delivery.

It's obviously always been there, but with the contemporisation and modernisation that we're seeing in how healthcare will be delivered into the future, it's absolutely essential that we come together to think about what the overall objectives are and what the opportunities are.

Future-Ready Government: Leadership, Data and AI for Better Community Outcomes

Taking place from 12:20 PM to 12:50 PM on Thursday, 22 October, the discussion will bring together leaders from across ACT Government to examine how digital capability, data and AI can support better outcomes for the community.

Skye will be joined by:

• Sam Engele, Deputy Director-General Environment, Planning and Policy, City and Environment Directorate
• Daniel Bray, Executive Branch Manager, Design and Strategy, Digital Canberra
• Dr Holger Kaufmann, Chief Information Officer and Executive Group Manager, Digital Health | Digital Canberra

Together, the panel will explore:

• leading digital transformation across government
• using data and AI to improve policy, planning and service delivery
• building public trust through ethical governance and transparency
• developing future-ready capability and operating models
• collaborating across government to accelerate innovation

The session is part of the dedicated ACT Digital Futures track at Government Innovation Showcase Federal 2026.

Part of Government Innovation Showcase Federal 2026

The ACT Digital Futures track sits within the wider Government Innovation Showcase Federal program, bringing an ACT Government perspective to many of the same digital, data and AI challenges being addressed across the public sector.

Across the Showcase, government leaders and practitioners will explore how agencies are moving from technology experimentation towards scalable, sustainable transformation, with a strong focus on responsible AI, data, digital services, productivity, workforce capability and cross-government collaboration.

The broader agenda is structured across dedicated streams covering Digital Services, CX and AI Innovation, Technology, Data and AI Integration, AI Enhanced Productivity, ACT Digital Futures, and a separate Innovation in Learning stream.

For ACT Government attendees, the day provides an opportunity to hear from leaders working within the Territory while also connecting those conversations to the wider transformation underway across Australian government.

Government Innovation Showcase Federal 2026 takes place on Thursday, 22 October 2026 in Canberra.

Registration is complimentary for government attendees.

Explore the event: Government Innovation Showcase Federal overview | Register for the event