'Affect their credibility' | AI stigma leaves civil servants reluctant to admit to using it

Some civil servants fear that acknowledging AI use will damage their professional credibility, with a government evaluation finding concerns about how senior colleagues would view their work.

The findings, reported by The Telegraph, emerged from a trial at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), where staff were given access to Redbox, an internally developed AI tool capable of summarising documents, answering questions and transcribing meetings.

The department initially allocated 200 accounts for the trial, which ran from December 2024 to March 2025. Its evaluation, published in September 2026, examined both employees’ experiences and their attitudes towards the technology.

Concerns about credibility

Interviews revealed that some staff were reluctant to include a disclaimer explaining that AI had helped produce their work because they worried about the response from others.