Automating government workflows: what works and what doesn't
Last checked 2026-11-13
A practical guide for councils and state and federal agencies, Australia first, then the US. Published by SG1 Consulting, which makes The Everything, an AI worker for Microsoft 365.
Which workflows suit automation
Most government work follows one pattern: lodgement, a completeness check, logging and assignment, a clock, searches, a draft, a decision, and a response that is sent and filed. Only one of those steps is the decision. Automation helps with the rest. A workflow is a good candidate when it has:
- Volume. Officers retype the same details and send the same acknowledgements, many times a week.
- A checklist. Completeness can be tested against a published list of required documents or fields.
- A clock. A statutory or service-standard deadline has to be tracked, such as a freedom of information decision period.
- A register. Someone keeps a spreadsheet or list of every item, its status and its due date.
- Repeatable drafting. Acknowledgements, requests for further information and standard replies follow a pattern an officer then edits.
Workflows suit automation poorly when the work is mostly judgement: merits assessment, enforcement, decisions about vulnerable people, and anything the law gives to a named officer or delegate. Software can prepare the file for those decisions. It should not make them.
Workflow by workflow: what can be automated and what stays with an officer
| Workflow | What can be automated | What stays with an officer |
|---|---|---|
| Development applications | Reading lodged documents against the council's checklist, flagging gaps, drafting a request for information, tracking assessment stages and benchmark dates | Accepting or rejecting the lodgement, assessment, referrals, conditions, determination |
| FOI, GIPA and FOIA requests | Logging, acknowledgement drafts, deadline register, search requests to business units, collating responses, first-draft decision notice | Validity, scope negotiation, exemptions, the access decision, the notice that is sent |
| Customer requests | Reading incoming requests, logging them, suggesting a category and team, drafting status updates, chasing overdue items | Priority calls, site inspections, the response to complaints, anything involving risk to a person |
| Permits and licences | Completeness checks, a register of expiry dates, renewal reminders, follow-ups for missing documents | Granting, refusing, conditioning, suspending or cancelling |
| Procurement approvals | Routing a request to the right delegate under your own policy, checking quote count against your thresholds, filing the record | The approval to spend, the choice of supplier, any exemption from policy |
| Ministerial correspondence | Registering items, assigning a due date, drafting a reply from approved material, tracking sign-off | Policy content, clearance and the signature |
Where an AI worker on Microsoft 365 fits
Many smaller councils and agencies already run these workflows in Microsoft 365: shared mailboxes, registers in Excel or SharePoint lists, documents in SharePoint, conversations in Teams. An AI worker inside that environment can take on the administrative steps without a new system of record.
The Everything is one such tool. Its published integrations include Outlook and Exchange (personal and shared mailboxes), Outlook Calendar, OneDrive and SharePoint, SharePoint Lists, Excel, Word, Planner and To Do. It lives in Microsoft Teams. Its Word add-in "drafts and edits in your document, with each change approved". The publisher says it "asks before anything important goes out" and that when something looks off, "it stops and shows you what it thinks is wrong".
In a government workflow, that means the AI reads, checks, logs, reminds and drafts. An officer approves before any response leaves the organisation. For government work, treat every outgoing message as important, and confirm during a trial that nothing is sent without an officer's approval.
Who this is for, and who it isn't
The Everything is built for small and mid-size organisations on Microsoft 365. It is priced per organisation, not per user. That makes it a reasonable fit for a small council, a regional authority, a statutory body or a team inside a larger department that works mostly in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint.
Large agencies usually have established platforms for case management, records and customer requests. Common names include ServiceNow, TechnologyOne, Objective and Granicus. If you run one of those, the realistic question is whether an AI worker can sit alongside it, not whether it replaces it. None of them appears on The Everything's published integrations list. Custom integrations are listed as "Ask us", which means the vendor confirms fit before you commit.
What to check before you start
Government buyers need their own security, privacy and records-management assessment before any AI tool touches official information. Here is what The Everything states publicly, so you can start that assessment from facts:
- Certifications. No certifications (such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001) are claimed. If your assessment requires one, that is a gap to raise.
- Where AI processing happens. The privacy policy says AI processing uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI (in the publisher's own Azure tenancy) and OpenAI. It also says "Providers may process information outside your country." No hosting country is stated. Data does leave your Microsoft 365 tenant for this processing.
- Training. The publisher says customer data is never used to train AI models, and that its providers are bound not to use it to train their general models.
- Access. It runs against your own Microsoft 365 tenant with "tightly scoped permissions". The privacy policy lists tenant and role isolation, least-privilege access and audit logging, with encryption "in transit and at rest where appropriate".
- Records. Work stays in your Microsoft 365. Under the Archives Act 1983, the National Archives of Australia is responsible for identifying the Commonwealth's archival resources. Councils and state agencies have their own records obligations. Confirm that drafts, registers and approvals produced with AI help are captured in your record-keeping system.
Questions people ask
Can an AI make government decisions?
It should not. Where legislation gives a decision to an officer or delegate, that person decides. An AI worker can prepare the file, check completeness, track the deadline and draft the decision notice for the decision-maker to review, change and sign.
Which workflow should a council automate first?
Pick one with high volume, a published checklist and a clear deadline, where the current pain is retyping and chasing. Request intake and acknowledgement, a permit renewal register, or the FOI deadline register are common starting points because the decision itself is untouched.
Does The Everything replace a records management system?
No. It works in your Microsoft 365. Whatever it drafts or logs stays in your mailboxes, SharePoint and files, and your records obligations still apply. Check that your record-keeping captures AI-assisted drafts and approvals.
Does data stay in Australia?
Not necessarily. The privacy policy says AI processing uses Azure OpenAI and OpenAI, and that providers may process information outside your country. No hosting country is stated.
Is this site independent?
No. It is published by SG1 Consulting, the company that makes The Everything. The workflow guidance applies whatever tool you use.
An AI worker inside Microsoft 365
The Everything runs inside Microsoft 365 and Teams. It prepares, checks, tracks and drafts, and it asks before anything important goes out. There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card. After that it costs $400 AUD/month + GST per organisation, with unlimited team members. Do your own security, privacy and records assessment before using it for government work.
See how The Everything works