AI best practice and guidance program

How the National AI Centre works with organisations to gather insights and understand emerging AI practices to inform guidance.

 

We engage directly with organisations to ensure our guidance reflects how AI is being used and managed in practice.

These engagements are targeted and time‑bound. We work with organisations and experts that are using, building or governing AI to understand current practices and emerging challenges.

Through this work, we:

  • identify current barriers and challenges
  • understand how practices, processes and culture are changing
  • test what support is most useful
  • ensure guidance reflects real organisational needs.

Insights from these engagements inform our guidance and are shared across government. This ensures our advice is practical, timely and relevant to Australian organisations.

Current topics of focus

We focus our engagement on areas where organisations are actively working through challenges in using and managing AI, and where clearer guidance is required.  

Risk assessment

Agentic AI
July- September 2026
Understand how organisations are identifying and managing risks in their use of AI systems. This work focuses on practical approaches to assessing impact, defining risk level and applying safeguards.		 July- September 2026
Explore emerging risks and governance approaches for agentic AI systems that can act with increasing autonomy. This includes accountability, oversight, and decision-making boundaries.

How engagement works

Each engagement focuses on a specific topic and brings together organisations with relevant experience.

We use a mix of methods, depending on the topic and insights needed:

  • best practice sprints, which may include one-on-one interviews with governance experts and adoption leaders
  • engagement sessions
  • focus groups
  • surveys

Activities are designed to be focused and time‑efficient. We aim to minimise the effort required from participants while still enabling meaningful input and peer exchange.

We tailor the approach based on:

  • the topic being explored
  • the organisations involved
  • how quickly insights are needed

Who we work with

We engage organisations across sectors and sizes, including:

  • large enterprises
  • small and medium enterprises
  • not‑for‑profit organisations
  • experts, research and technical organisations

Upcoming engagement sessions

Following a strong response to our call for expressions of interest, registrations for the initial engagement sessions have now closed.

Engagement sessions will commence from 24 August 2026. Insights gathered through this work will help inform future guidance, resources and engagement opportunities.

To stay informed about this program of work and future opportunities to participate, subscribe to the National AI Centre newsletter.