Reinventing Public Service Through Human-Centered Digital Innovation: City of Sydney

This IDC Perspective examines how the City of Sydney, a multiple winner at the 2025 IDC Future Enterprise Awards in Australia, is reinventing public service through human-centered, trustworthy digital innovation. Across three award-winning initiatives, a safe, fast GenAI Knowledge Retrieval Chatbot; the CityConnect digital services ecosystem, which has digitized 84 services and processed 322,000 requests in its first year; and a Social Media Platform that lifted first response performance from 60% to 93%, the City embeds AI, design, and governance in everyday service delivery. Led by CIO/CTO of the Year Dr. Tom Gao, its approach pairs lean, agile delivery with responsible AI guidelines and inclusive change management. The study offers actionable insights for public sector and other risk-aware organizations pursuing safe, measurable, AI-enabled transformation."The City of Sydney shows that the public sector can lead in applying AI to real human needs. By starting with low-risk, well-governed use cases and proving value fast, the City turned institutional caution into a competitive advantage, building the trust, literacy, and platforms that make safe, customer-facing AI possible," says Xiao Liu, research manager, AI-Fueled Business Strategies, IDC Asia/Pacific.