Half of civil servants at several Whitehall departments admit using AI to save time at work as Andy Burnham faces fresh questions over speechwriter using it to help craft keynote speech

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Around half or more of workers at the science and technology, business and trade, Treasury, Foreign Office and energy Departments said they used AI to save 'one hour or more' a week.

Published: 21:00 GMT, 15 November 2026 | Updated: 21:23 GMT, 15 November 2026

Half of civil servants at several Whitehall departments have admitted using AI to save time at work.

Around half or more of workers at the science and technology, business and trade, Treasury, Foreign Office and energy Departments said in a major survey that they used AI to save 'one hour or more' a week.

It came as Andy Burnham faced mounting questions after a speechwriter was caught using AI to help craft a keynote address to Welsh Labour members in Llandudno on Saturday.

The Downing Street aide was pictured by the Mail on Sunday using ChatGPT to make the Prime Minister's words - including on the cost-of-living squeeze - more 'emotive'.

He were caught doing so while quaffing prosecco on the 17.03 train from London Euston to Holyhead on Friday, sparking accusations that the premier was an 'artificial prime minister' and that his 'man-of-the-people act' was 'a sham'.

While ministers hope AI could make Whitehall more productive, the growing scale of its use will raise fears that mandarins could use it to cut corners without fully understanding the subject matter at hand or coming up with original solutions to problems.

It will also raise fears about workers effectively sharing potentially sensitive information with Silicon Valley giants by inputting it into their AI engines, which they could then harvest.

The Downing Street aide was spotted on the 17.03 train from London Euston to Holyhead on Friday using AI to help write a speech for the PM

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