Last updated: 10 June 2026.
The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) Policy for the responsible use of AI in government requires agencies to designate AI accountable officials and publish a public AI transparency statement. This page provides details of the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC)’s implementation of these requirements.
Accountable Official
The ALRC has an AI Accountable Official under the policy. The ALRC’s AI Accountable Official is the Director of Operations and Finance, reporting to the Executive Director of the ALRC. There is no change to the ALRC’s accountable official.
The AI Accountable Official has primary responsibility for the development and application of the ALRC’s AI policy and implementation approach, including:
- facilitating ALRC involvement in cross-government AI coordination and collaboration
- developing and maintaining the ALRC’s AI policy and supporting resources
- uplifting governance, education and guidance for AI use in the ALRC
- embedding a culture that balances AI risk management and innovation
- monitoring implementation
- supporting adaptation to changes in whole-of-government AI policy over time.
ALRC’s approach to AI adoption and use
The ALRC is committed to adopting and using AI in a way that is safe, ethical, accountable and transparent, consistent with Australian Government requirements and community expectations.
At present, the ALRC’s approach is to:
- use AI only for approved, low-risk workplace productivity purposes, and
- build organisational capability and governance so we can assess whether, and how, AI might responsibly support additional activities over time (subject to risk assessment and approvals).
As part of this commitment, the ALRC maintains internal guidance and training requirements for staff on the safe and responsible use of AI tools.
How the ALRC uses AI
Public interaction and impact
The ALRC is not using AI in a way the public can directly interact with, or be significantly impacted by, If this changes, we will update this statement to describe the use and safeguards
Law reform activities
The ALRC does not use AI for strictly law reform activities, including legal analysis, drafting or recommendations. AI does not produce or materially influence inquiry outputs.
Corporate and workplace productivity
Our current AI use is limited to workplace productivity. All staff have access to Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot is available to approved roles across the organisation (for example, for collaboration, meeting support, and drafting and summarising routine material).
Current trials and pilot use of AI
We are trialling the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to support ALRC staff to work more effectively and to assist with our responsibilities in a controlled and low‑risk way. This pilot is governed by an internal framework that sets out approved tools, including Microsoft 365 Copilot for productivity and operational efficiency and selected legal AI tools — LexisNexis Lexis+ AI with Protégé and Thomson Reuters Westlaw Precision Australia with AI‑Assisted Research — to support legal research, analysis and synthesis.
In this pilot, AI may be used to:
- support operational efficiencies, such as calendar and email management
- summarise and organise information from approved documents and materials
- prepare meeting notes, transcripts, summaries and action items
- assist with internal planning, coordination and other operational tasks
- help draft and refine internal and / or non-sensitive content and routine correspondence
- support legal research, drafting and analysis including by:
- identifying potentially relevant cases, legislation and other sources
- identifying themes, issues and patterns in academic, consultation or submission material
- summarising legal materials
- comparing approaches across jurisdictions
- checking whether sources support a stated proposition
- assisting with editing, proof reading and spelling and grammar checking legal and policy work.
AI is not being trialled to produce substantive ALRC work from scratch – it is not being used in legal reasoning, to substitute independent analysis, or to produce inquiry findings or recommendations.
AI supports staff, but it does not replace human judgement. All AI outputs are reviewed, verified against source material, and refined before use. ALRC staff remain accountable for all decisions and final content.
AI safety and governance
Within the ALRC, all AI use cases are recorded in an internal register to track their progress and status. For new and emerging potential uses of AI, it is the responsibility of the AI Accountable Authority to:
- Ensure that any AI is implemented safely and responsibly
- Monitor the effectiveness of the deployed AI system
- Ensure legal and regulatory compliance of the ICT system
- Identify potential negative impacts of the AI use case
- Implement measures to mitigate potential harms from AI
Classification of AI system use cases
The DTA standard requires agencies to classify AI use by usage pattern and domain.
The ALRC’s current AI use is classified as:
- Usage pattern: Workplace productivity using Microsoft CoPilot and Copilot 365.
- Domain: Corporate and enabling.
If the ALRC’s AI use expands to additional usage patterns or domains, we will update this statement accordingly.
Updates to this statement
This statement will be updated as the ALRC’s approach to AI changes, and at least every twelve months. It may also be updated sooner when the ALRC makes a significant change to its approach to AI, or when any new factor materially impacts the statement’s accuracy.
Contact
For enquiries about the ALRC’s adoption of AI, contact: [email protected]