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Developing GOV.UK Chat: Our data science and AI engineering journey

Posted by: Alessia Tosi, Lead Data Scientist, GOV.UK AI Team, at GDS and Nick Lange, Data Scientist, GOV.UK AI Team at GDS, Posted on: 15 May 2026 - Categories: Data, How we work, What we're working on
A process diagram of an AI powered chatbot, from the user question to information retrieval to large language model generation to system response.

Find out how we've used insights and evaluation to refine our experimental AI-powered chatbot ahead of opening up access more widely

Read more of Developing GOV.UK Chat: Our data science and AI engineering journey

GOV.UK has entered the Chat: our vision for GOV.UK Chat

Posted by: Leanne Cummings, Director, Products and Services, GDS, Posted on: 16 December 2025 - Categories: Vision and plans, What we're working on, Working with us
A white text box is displayed in front of a light blue background. The text box reads "Hello, I'm GOV.UK Chat"

Learn about our plans for GOV.UK Chat, the AI-powered chat system we’ve built as an easier, quicker way to interact with government.

Read more of GOV.UK has entered the Chat: our vision for GOV.UK Chat - 36 comments

How we’re designing GOV.UK Chat

Posted by: Kuba Bartwicki, Lead Designer, GDS, Sharon McDonald, Lead User Researcher, GDS, Lucy McArthur, Interaction Designer, GDS, Aisling Sweeney, Content Designer, GDS and Robert Sewell, Senior User Researcher, GDS, Posted on: 28 November 2024 - Categories: How we work, User insights, What we're working on
3 mobile phone screens displaying GOV.UK Chat. A user has asked ‘Can I claim capital allowances for a house?’ and GOV.UK Chat has provided an answer, plus 2 links to check it on GOV.UK.

Learn more about our approach to designing GOV.UK’s experimental chatbot.

Read more of How we’re designing GOV.UK Chat - 5 comments

GOV.UK Chat: Understanding and addressing jailbreaking in our generative AI experiment

Posted by: The GOV.UK AI Team, Posted on: 5 November 2024 - Categories: How we work, What we're working on
An image of the initial message seen by GOV.UK Chat users displayed on a smartphone, against a light blue background. The message says “Hello, I’m GOV.UK Chat. I’m an experimental tool that uses AI to help you find information about business and trade.”

Learn how we’re addressing the risk of our experimental chatbot being manipulated to produce unintended or harmful responses.

Read more of GOV.UK Chat: Understanding and addressing jailbreaking in our generative AI experiment - 1 comment

We’re running a private beta of GOV.UK Chat

Posted by: Sam Dub, Product Lead on GOV.UK, GDS and Josh Davey, Senior Product Manager, Posted on: 5 November 2024 - Categories: What we're working on
A white text box is displayed in front of a light blue background. The text box reads "Hello, I'm GOV.UK Chat"

This month we’re beginning an experimental pilot of our AI-powered chatbot. Here’s what we’ve been doing since our last update about GOV.UK Chat and what’s happening now.

Read more of We’re running a private beta of GOV.UK Chat - 2 comments

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Inside GOV.UK

A blog about running and improving GOV.UK, for anyone who is working on GOV.UK or interested in how the digital home of the UK government works. Written by the Government Digital Service team.

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Graphic showing 3 mobile phone screens with GOV.UK app on them. Title "GOV.UK Public beta"The GOV.UK app went live in public beta in July 2025. Find out what’s been happening, and what’s coming next, on the GDS blog.

Recent posts

  • Developing GOV.UK Chat: Our data science and AI engineering journey 15 May 2026
  • Why GOV.UK APIs are changing and how you can get involved 7 April 2026
  • 5 things we learned testing GOV.UK Chat: an AI assistant for government 16 March 2026
  • How we retired a web application to make GOV.UK simpler to run 6 March 2026
  • How people used GOV.UK in 2025 28 January 2026

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