Maximizing the Adoption of AI for Plain Language Across Government

Understanding the problem

The project team used a human-centred design approach to understand what stops public servants from writing in plain language. The team started with a discovery phase. This involved running workshops and talking to public servants to understand the main problems with creating plain language content.

Discovery revealed the real issue was not a lack of skills or awareness. Time constraints and complex approval processes were the major barriers for public servants. This meant traditional plain language training alone was not going to fix the root cause.

This discovery helped the project team think about how AI could help solve these problems. The team investigated how AI could work as a rapid prototyping tool, as AI can quickly provide multiple options. This allows content creators to quickly convert complex text into plain language and create multiple examples. This lets public servants review the outputs to choose what works best for their own approval environment.

Design mindsets

The project team worked with a wide range of Victorian and Australian public servants to create AI solutions, using collaborative platforms like the Victorian Public Sector Commissions Innovation Network and the Australian Government Digital Professionals Network.

The team used a working out loud approach by showing work early and often. This let public servants play, test and provide feedback on prototypes. This collaborative approach meant the team could crowdsource improvements. The team did this using the collaborative functionality of the Innovation Network.

This feedback allowed the team to develop multiple versions of an AI plain language prompt. Rapid prototyping meant the prompt performed in an unbiased way, providing high quality consistent results. The team reflected on how to build an ecosystem to support the distribution and ongoing improvement of best practice prompts.

Design a fit for purpose solution

After testing and improving the AI prompt, the team focused on user experience. The team looked at how the prompt could be shared and used across government. This was challenging because the plain language prompt is more than 3000 words. The team used a systems approach to understand how multiple touchpoints could all work together. The goal was for users to easily discover, understand and use the plain language prompt.

Creating an ecosystem

The project team built an ecosystem that included multiple touchpoints across multiple platforms and products. This included embedding the prompt into the UX homepage of VicChat, as a single-click button. This allowed VicChat users to quickly and easily use the prompt in their workflow.

The team believed ongoing testing and iteration was important for continuous improvement. This led to the creation of a new product — the first AI prompt library for public servants. The plain language prompt was included in this library. This allowed all Victorian public servants to access the prompt in full, ensuring complete transparency.

The team published the library on the Innovation Network. The library allows any public servant to upload any AI prompt they find useful in their work. By publishing the prompts in full, public servants can continue to test and improve prompts in the library. As prompts are improved, they move through different versions and are labelled as current or superseded.

Empowering users

The AI prompt library publishes prompts in full. This empowers public servants because they can copy and paste any prompt from the library into any AI chat prompt gallery. This allows users to customise prompts into the UX of any AI chat product, letting them create custom user experiences with any AI chat tool.

Creating a world-first solution

During the discovery phase, the project team realised a completely new product needed to be created to support public servants and AI adoption. This led to the creation of the first AI prompt library for public servants. Much of this work required future thinking. The team used discovery insights to predict the future needs of public servants.

The prompt library is published on the Innovation Network. The team used the network’s Communities of Practice and collaborative features to make sure the library can be continuously improved by the community. This builds the design capability of collaboration into the product design, allowing all public servants to influence future product improvements.

Innovative features

The library allows public servants to upload their own AI prompts. The discussion feature means other public servants can leave comments for prompt improvements. This creates a living, changing resource that improves over time.

The collaborative approach built through the project and product delivery allows public servants to continually interact with the design. This helps create greater support and leads to higher adoption rates.

Breaking new ground

This is the first Whole-of-Victorian Government AI prompt library. It solves the unique challenge of sharing complex AI instructions across government. The Innovation Network provides a space that every Victorian public servant can access.

The library also addresses the critical government need for transparency and removing bias from AI tools through community oversight and collaborative improvement. Rapid prototyping the AI for plain language prompt with public servants has resulted in a highly stable, high-performing AI prompt.

The current prompt can reduce reading levels from grade 15 down to grade 6. Because it aligns with the rules of the Australian Government Style Manual, it is desirable and relevant to the work of public servants.

Widespread adoption

The team designed the ecosystem with multiple touchpoints for sharing, collaborating and understanding the prompt. This allowed for widespread buy-in. The prompt library became the most viewed resource in the AI Community of Practice on the Digital Professionals Network. This means all Australian public servants can access the plain language prompt and customise and embed it for their own AI chat user needs.

The team shared the prompt library on the Victorian Government’s Innovation Network across multiple communities of practice. Communities highlighted it as a resource making discovery simple and easy for all Victorian public servants.

Addressing user pain points

The team used discovery insights to create supporting resources to solve users’ pain points. They created a 4-minute user guide on how to use the library and plain language prompt. The video explains how the prompt can also address the challenges identified during discovery.

The consistent quality of the plain language prompt means AI can be used as a rapid prototyping tool for content creation. This helped public servants understand that AI can generate multiple outputs for the same inputs. Public servants can use AI to create multiple plain language options, helping content creators select the most appropriate outputs for their unique approval process.

Demonstrating impact

The impact was evident in a recent lunch and learn session about the library and plain language prompt. More than 600 Victorian public servants attended, demonstrating their desire and interest to use AI and the plain language prompt to improve their writing.