Eighty-seven per cent of Australian Government agencies now use artificial intelligence, but only 15 per cent apply it to information management activities and just 8 per cent use it to create metadata, according to the National Archives of Australia's latest Check-up survey.
The finding comes from the Check-up 2025 Whole-of-Government Summary Report, published by the National Archives of Australia (NAA) in June 2026. The survey was conducted online between September and December 2025, drawing responses from 175 Australian Government agencies ranging from nano agencies of 10 or fewer staff to large agencies of more than 1,000 employees.
On a more positive note, 62 per cent of agencies said they consult their information management teams for advice when integrating AI into business processes or decisions, suggesting information governance functions are at least part of the conversation even where AI is not yet embedded in their own workflows.
Overall maturity keeps climbing, slowly
The survey's overall information management maturity index reached 3.72 out of 5 in 2025, up from 3.70 in 2024, 3.65 in 2023 and 3.60 in 2022. Creating information assets remained the highest-performing area, at 4.37, while use, reuse and interoperability (3.37) and appraising and disposing (3.28) remained the weakest.
Governance practices showed the clearest gains. Sixty per cent of agencies now have established information governance frameworks, up from the 50-56 per cent range recorded between 2022 and 2024, with a further 30 per cent developing one.
Eighty-seven per cent of agencies reported reviewing or updating governance frameworks in 2025, and 54 per cent now have active governance committees making decisions on enterprise-wide information management issues, continuing a steady upward trend from the 44-47 per cent range of the previous three years.
The Building trust in the public record policy, which the survey is structured around, was due to expire at the end of 2025 but has been extended for a further three years to 31 December 2028. The NAA described the 2025 results as "an important stocktake" against the policy's original three implementation priorities: strategic governance and reporting, fit-for-purpose processes and systems, and reducing inefficiency and risk.
Digital volumes surge as physical holdings shrink
Digital information asset volumes held by agencies reached 1,028,246 terabytes in 2025, more than double the 424,902 terabytes recorded in 2024. Physical information asset volumes, by contrast, fell to their lowest level in six years.
The Check-up survey will not run in 2026. The NAA said agencies should still regularly assess their information management maturity during the pause and can contact the National Archives for support in doing so.
The full report and previous years' results are available on the National Archives of Australia website.