Victorian local government is navigating a rapid but uneven technological transition where individual adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) is outpacing organisational response in many councils. The sector has genuine capability emerging at one end of the spectrum and real gaps at the other. On this backdrop, this report presents the first sector-wide baseline of AI adoption across Victorian local government. 

Findings draw on an end-user AI adoption survey completed by 2,500 respondents across 22 Victorian councils, and a council-level enablement survey completed by 20 of those councils to help understand user profiles, what is driving uptake, what is holding it back, and where gaps between adoption and governance are emerging.