Report

The scaling state: Rewiring Whitehall for the AI age

This report from UK think tank Re:State argues that the answer is not another digital strategy, but a fundamental change in how the State operates.

In recent years, Government has published digital strategies like clockwork. It has invested in digital services, established standards for how they should be built, and set out ambitious plans for digital government. But the State has struggled to turn these ambitions into results.

Government’s underlying systems and approaches to funding, procurement, accountability and ownership were not designed for the artificial intelligence age – an age where software can be developed and deployed at a speed not seen before, and where AI can fundamentally change the cost and organisation of the workforce. As a result, promising digital and AI initiatives too often remain isolated, struggle to scale, or run up against the machinery of government itself.

The scale of the challenge is clear: the State of Digital Government Review 2025 found that only one in five survey respondents felt the current funding model enabled effective investment in and running of digital services. The Scaling State argues that the answer is not another digital strategy, but a fundamental change in how the State operates.

The paper sets out 20 ideas for making that shift from an annual Technology Statement and independent Office for Technology Assessment to new approaches to procurement, funding and AI testing and talent. Together, these ideas would shift government away from treating digital transformation as a collection of individual projects and towards building the shared capabilities, incentives and institutions needed to iteratively improve the State.

Capturing the benefits of AI will depend not only on the technology itself, but on whether government is prepared to change the systems around it.