The deployment of AI-enabled services within the public sector raises complex challenges, including trust issues of ethics, quality, reliability and explainability. These issues are compounded by the need to integrate such services into existing digital ecosystems and policy frameworks that are still adjusting to the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. 

While the value of these AI-enabled services is increasingly clear, the critical question is whether the organisation or government department is organisationally, technically and ethically prepared to deploy these services responsibly and at scale. This paper seeks to address that readiness gap. 

The paper proposes two key tools: the AI Business Readiness Framework and the AI Capability Delivery Governance Model. Together these tools can be used for assessing and strengthening organisational capability to deploy AI-enabled services in complex, data-intensive domains such as resource exploration. By shifting the focus from technical readiness to a comprehensive governance model, it offers valuable insights and readily usable frameworks for government departments and organisations seeking to implement and deploy AI technologies responsibly and effectively.

The resulting recommendations were initially targeted for internal Queensland Government consumption. However, many aspects of this work are novel and shed new light on how AI tools can be practically integrated into organisations. This white paper focusses on ideas and concepts applicable to organisations wishing to adopt generative AI in a similar way to what Geological Survey of Queensland is proposing.