Amanda Sleight: ‘AI is about augmenting people, not replacing them’
UK Stories caught up with Amanda Sleight, Microsoft UK’s new head of public sector, to find out how Microsoft AI technologies are helping UK government improve public sector services and reset the relationship between the state and the people it serves.
Q. Tell us a bit about your background and how you ended up working in technology?
Amanda: I was born and raised in South Africa, though my family is originally British. Growing up in Africa, I saw first-hand how technology, skills, and education can transform lives. That experience shaped my passion for using technology to make a real difference. After 17 years at Microsoft in various roles, I spent time at SAP, leading their global cloud partner organisation, and then five-and-a-half years at Amazon Web Services (AWS). I returned to Microsoft because I believed in the company’s vision for artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to democratise technology, especially in the public sector.
Q. What does your current role at Microsoft involve?
A. My team covers most of government. We’re divided into five areas:
Education: We work with universities and research organisations to support future generations and accelerate research that can improve outcomes.
Public Safety and National Security: We partner with organisations like the Police and the Home Office to help them serve citizens more effectively.
Local and Devolved Government: This includes everything from road repairs and street lighting to social services. Councils play a vital role in local communities, and we support them in delivering a wide range of services.
Health: We work with the National Health Service (NHS) across England, Scotland, and Wales to improve patient outcomes. By reducing administrative burdens through technology we are helping the NHS spend less time on admin and more time with patients.
Central Government: We support all central government departments, such as the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), helping them deliver services more efficiently to citizens.
Q. That’s a huge remit! Do you ever find it daunting?
A: I see it as an opportunity rather than something daunting. Our scale allows us to serve the government end-to-end, which few other organisations can do. One of our strengths is sharing innovation and best practice across departments. For example, our Innovation Forum brings together over 2,000 members from local and devolved government to share solutions, so Councils don’t have to reinvent the wheel and can innovate quickly to deliver better services.
Q. You’ve been in your role since January 2025. What is your strategy?
A. I joined at a time when the government is focused on using technology to deliver better outcomes, especially within tight budgets. We focus on:
Security: It’s our number one priority. The National Audit Office (NAO) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) report that the cyber threat to government is severe. Between September 2023 and August 2024, 89 out of 430 cyber incidents managed by NCSC were deemed “nationally significant”. The June 2024 cyber-attack on an NHS pathology supplier led to the postponement of 10,000 outpatient appointments and 1,700 elective procedures, for example. We are focused on supporting government to build secure infrastructure and solutions, and provide secure services to citizens.
Upgrading legacy infrastructure: Legacy Systems – featuring older hardware and software – are often unsupported and poorly documented, creating risk. Government has identified more than 228 such legacy systems. Microsoft is working with departments to identify and translate these into secure cloud based services.
Digitalising Services: We aim to make key government services – like job centres – more accessible and efficient. For example, we’ve rolled out Copilot Chat (Microsoft’s free AI-powered assistant) to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), helping employees spend more time supporting people to find jobs and less time on paperwork.
Understanding sector needs: We work closely with each sector – health, education, local government and so on – to address their specific challenges. For instance, we’re supporting the NHS’s 10-year plan to modernise healthcare.
Q. What successes have you seen so far?
A. There have been some fantastic outcomes:
Government: We provided 20,000 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses across 12 government departments. They found they could potentially save 14 days per person per year on routine processes.
NHS: frontline workers are saving an average of 43 minutes a day, enabling them to spend more time with patients.
Policing: Durham Constabulary is saving lives with automated case management systems that speed up safeguarding information requests.
Higher Education: London School of Economics (LSE) is deploying AI at scale, creating a shareable blueprint for AI adoption in the higher education sector. Leicester University has improved its student engagement program by rolling out the Microsoft stack. And Manchester University has delivered Copilot Chat to its students to support student data security.
Local government: Somerset Council stands out for thinking big about how to use technology and sharing its successes with others through the Innovation Forum. It’s using integrated Copilot agents to enhance business productivity and provide data insights, supporting social workers with seamless access to data, automating tasks, and improving the accuracy and timeliness of support.
Q. How do you address concerns that AI will take jobs in the public sector?
A. AI is about augmenting people, not replacing them. In contact centres, for example, AI can handle routine queries – like how to claim tax or get a refund – freeing up staff to focus on more meaningful work that requires human empathy and judgement. The aim is to use technology to let people do what they do best.
Q. How is Microsoft’s five-year strategic partnership with the government progressing?
A. It’s going really well. The partnership agreement provides a framework for a “one government” approach, encouraging departments to share best practice and tackle common challenges together. Recently, we had 33 departments – including NHS Property Services and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office – discussing how to use this framework to drive better outcomes.
Q: What’s your vision for a fully AI-enabled public sector?
A. An AI-enabled government that will deliver services seamlessly throughout the sector, improving the lives of everyone in the country. This vision must be promptly transformed into reality, as achieving it at the earliest opportunity will yield greater benefits for our citizens. Our goal within this vision is to serve with purpose and deliver those better outcomes for citizens through the responsible and cost-effective use of AI-powered technologies. At the heart of this is empowering individuals and every organisation to achieve more.