Appendix D: Classification system for AI use
This classification system reflects the common uses of AI in government and the domains where it is typically applied.
Agencies subject to the Policy for the responsible use of AI in government are required to classify their AI use by these usage patterns and domains:
- in their use case register, as per the Standard for accountability
- when assessing a use case with the AI impact assessment tool
- in their AI transparency statement, as per the Standard for AI transparency statements.
Agencies may select multiple usage patterns and domains for individual use cases where they meaningfully apply.
Agencies should link to this classification system on digital.gov.au/ai/resources/use-classification when listing their usage patterns and domains.
Usage patterns
Decision making and administrative action
Uses AI to make, or substantially and directly inform, a decision or administrative action that could affect the rights or interests of an individual or entity. This includes refusing or failing to take such an action.
Examples
Eligibility decisions and recommendations, approvals, refusals, benefit determinations, licence decisions, payment adjustments, compliance outcomes and recommendations, risk scoring, prioritisation recommendations, case triage, benefit assessment support and recommended enforcement actions for human decision makers.
Analytics
Identifies patterns, generates insights, forecasts outcomes or makes recommendations from structured or unstructured information to support evidence-based decision-making.
Examples
Risk analysis, demand forecasting, fraud detection, anomaly detection, sentiment analysis, trend identification, service performance reporting and predictive modelling.
Strategic support
Assists research, policy development and drafting, issue framing, idea exploration, hypothesis development, sensemaking, information synthesis, knowledge management and advisory activities.
Examples
Policy drafting, briefing preparation, legislative analysis, document comparison, consultation analysis, options analysis, sense-checking analysis and qualitative synthesis.
Workplace productivity
Supports routine work, communication, collaboration and personal productivity without materially changing business processes or administrative outcomes.
Examples
Meeting summaries, email drafting, document summaries, presentation drafting, translation support, calendar assistance, action tracking and routine secretariat support.
Image processing
Processes images or visual information to identify, classify, detect or verify objects, such as features or patterns for official purposes.
Examples
Facial recognition for border control, image classification, object detection, document image extraction, medical or scientific image analysis and identifying pests in cargo to aid biosecurity.
Coding
Supports software engineering activities across the software lifecycle, including code generation, prototyping, debugging, testing and documentation.
Examples
Requirements analysis, solution design, generating first-draft code, prototyping an advanced website search function, debugging, writing test cases, refactoring code, documenting APIs and reviewing code for accessibility or security issues.
Domains
Service delivery
Enhances the efficiency and accessibility of government services through tailored and responsive offerings for the public.
Supports the public to engage with services through chatbots, enhanced self-service and multilingual capabilities, and supports the staff and systems that deliver government services.
Examples
Virtual assistants for public enquiries, multilingual service guidance, triage of service requests, assisted form completion, appointment support and case officer decision support.
Compliance and fraud detection
Identifies patterns or anomalies in data to detect fraud, support compliance activity and help agencies administer laws and programs.
Examples
Payment integrity analysis, tax or revenue compliance risk models, grant acquittal checks, procurement anomaly detection, identity fraud indicators and prioritisation of compliance reviews.
Law enforcement, intelligence and security
Supports law enforcement, intelligence and security functions by analysing information from authorised sources to identify risks, support investigations and protect public safety, national security and government systems.
Examples
Threat detection, cyber security monitoring, intelligence search and summarisation, border risk assessment, investigation support, pattern analysis and protective security monitoring.
Policy and legal
Analyses policy, legislation, legal instruments and related information to support policy development, legal analysis, assurance and advice that is consistent with applicable laws and government obligations.
Supports policy development that is consistent with existing laws.
Examples
Policy options analysis, legislative comparison, regulatory impact analysis, consultation synthesis, legal research support, Cabinet brief preparation and consistency checks against existing policy or legislation.
Scientific
Processes complex datasets, supports modelling and simulation, predicts outcomes and enhances scientific, environmental, health, biosecurity and monitoring functions.
Examples
Biosecurity detection, environmental monitoring, weather or climate modelling, public health surveillance, medical or scientific image analysis, geospatial analysis and research data synthesis.
Corporate and enabling
Supports corporate and enabling functions, including human resources (HR), finance, procurement, media and communications, record management and information technology (IT).
Examples
HR service desk support, finance forecasting, procurement workflow support, media monitoring, records classification, IT service management, cyber triage and internal knowledge search.