Semi-Finalists
The eight Semi-Finalists were chosen by the Judging Panel in a two-hour meeting on 24 February. Commenting on the meeting, Judging Panel Chair David Filmer, Head of Public Sector at NTT DATA UK&I, said: “It was incredibly difficult to pick the eight most promising ideas. The quality of submissions was really excellent, demonstrating civil servants’ extraordinary inventiveness, expertise and commitment.
“The submissions also revealed civil servants’ enthusiasm and ambition about the potential of AI technologies: the emergence of large language models has opened up huge opportunities to improve public services, save taxpayers’ money and strengthen public servants’ tools across a wide variety of roles, activities and agendas.”
The eight Semi-Finalists are as follows:
Casework compliance assistant
AI guidance and support with data analysis, verification and processing for DWP benefits teams
Marlon Woodley, CFCD Verification Assurance Officer, Department for Work and Pensions
Codified digital solution assurance
Tackling fragmentation, complexity and duplication in assurance processes with a cross-government rules engine
Kelcey Swain, Data Foundations for AI Lead, Cabinet Office
Fraudulent document detection
AI verification service to identify documentation that has been tampered with or falsified
Eric Edward, Trainee Tax Specialist, HM Revenue & Customs
Offshore wind adaptation to protect wildlife
Using cameras and AI to safeguard protected birds approaching wind turbine arrays
Sabrina Schalz, NSIP Ecologist, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
Real-time weather event impact intelligence
Using data from government and open sources to track flooding and other extreme weather
Robert Cowling, Senior Hydrometeorologist, Environment Agency
AI for capability discovery
Using AI to scale advanced analysis of complex open data for early capability insights
Mark, Ministry of Defence
FOI request assistant
Multi-agent AI to aid triage, costing, data-gathering, and response drafting for Freedom of Information requests
Matthew Pickering, Stakeholder Engagement Lead, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero
Virtual personas for policy testing
Creation of AI personalities to explore the views and reactions of various demographics
Amish Sarpotdar, Economic Adviser, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero, Kiyoshi Bhuiyan, Principal Social Researcher, Social and Behavioural Energy Research, Department for Energy Security & Net Zero; and George Griffiths, Data Scientist, FCDO
Director – Chief Data and AI Officer, Digital Transformation and Digital Business Partnering, Deputy CIO, Ministry of Defence
Chief Data Architect, Department for Business and Trade
Head of Data Strategy and Transformation, Home Office
Head of Data Science Hub and Head of Data Science Practice, Department for Work and Pensions
Director of Functional Integration, Ministry of Defence
Deputy Director and Head of Profession/Chief Statistician for Statistics , Ministry of Justice
Group Chief Digital and Information Officer, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, United Kingdom
Chief Data Officer and Director, Data Growth and Operations, Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom
Deputy Director, Enterprise Data, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Chief Data Officer, 
Heather Wheeler MP was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary in the Cabinet Office, in addition to her current role as an Assistant Government Whip, on 8 February 2022.
Matthew is the CEO for NHSX, a joint unit between the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England, set up to ensure that staff and patients have the technology they need.
Chief Digital and Information Officer, HMRC
Chief Executive NHS Digital
Chief Executive, Central Digital and Data Office
Chief Analyst, 10 Downing Street
Head of Public Sector, NTT DATA UK
Chief Data Officer, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Deputy National Statistician and Director General for Data Capability, ONS
Head of the Policy Profession & Permanent Secretary, Defra
Head of the Operational Delivery Profession & Permanent Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions
Minister, Cabinet Office