Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, for what purposes (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have used AI in the last 12 months.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform diplomatic practice and the FCDO's delivery, enhancing our diplomatic impact and increasing individual productivity and corporate efficiency.

AI is already integrated into many commodity products and devices. Ministers do not currently use specific FCDO provided AI augmented tools in their work. Officials already use a range of FCDO provided AI augmented tools in their work to support information analysis and national security activities. The FCDO participated in the cross-HMG pilot of Microsoft Copilot and is trialling an AI agent to intelligently sign-post written Consular enquiries on GOV.UK. The secure and responsible adoption of AI is a key component of the FCDO's multi-year Digital, Data and Cyber Security Strategy.