In this Digital Edge panel, digital leaders from City of Sydney and Service NSW discussed how to scale AI and digital strategy through team readiness and user-focused execution.

Tom Gao, Chief Tech and Digital Services Officer at City of Sydney, and Christina Igasto, Chief Digital Officer at Service NSW, shared distinct but complementary views on what it takes to lead meaningful transformation in complex environments.

Tom outlined a digital, technology and customer experience strategy operating across 33 suburbs, serving 210,000 residents and welcoming 1 million daily visitors within just 26.15km².

The organisation contributes 22% of NSW’s GDP and 7% of Australia’s GDP, with 2,600 staff delivering more than 200 diverse services.

He challenged the assumption that transformation in this setting is simple, arguing it is often more complex than global private sector roles he has held.

For real progress, leaders must understand how the organisation works, on top of the systems behind it.

Christina focused on the practical deployment of AI, particularly generative AI and bots, and the organisational change needed to support them.

CIO investment in generative AI has risen from 50% in 2023 to 70% today, now accounting for 4% of average IT budgets.

But adoption, she argued, is not a funding issue. Success relies on how teams evolve alongside the technology.

Automation must enhance delivery, not add friction or reduce trust.

She described an evolutionary approach to AI implementation, starting with natural language understanding and scaling gradually.

Her team supports services across 70 agencies, managing high-volume requests across digital, in-person and contact centre channels.

To reduce hallucinations and improve accuracy, AI tools are restricted to trusted knowledge bases such as legislation and policy.

This approach is structured around user goals, iterative testing and co-design.

Together, their insights pointed to a more sustainable model for transformation: pairing AI investment with cultural alignment, real operational insight and ongoing design thinking.

 

Key takeaways

  • Complex environments demand more than technical fixes – Delivering 200+ services across diverse communities shows that digital success depends on understanding the organisation as deeply as the tech.
  • AI adoption requires cultural and operational support – With 70% of CIOs investing and AI taking 4% of IT budgets, leadership must prioritise team readiness and workflow alignment.
  • User-focused AI rollouts improve trust and accuracy – Gradual implementation, tied to vetted sources and shaped through co-design, helps ensure AI enhances service rather than undermining it.
Contributors
Christina Igasto Chief Digital Officer at ServiceNSW
A/Prof Christina Igasto is a Digital Transformation professional with over 25 years’ experience. She is a true innovator and strong senior executive... More

A/Prof Christina Igasto is a Digital Transformation professional with over 25 years’ experience. She is a true innovator and strong senior executive leader with a proven track record of building and managing high-performing multidisciplinary teams. Goal-driven and persistent, she develops emerging strategies, redesigns and implements new governance models across entire organisations and successfully lead them through challenging but ultimately highly rewarding periods of change.

Flexible and forward thinking, Christina works with organisations to align business strategy with consumers needs and business outcomes. With a background specialising in innovation and technology solutions in the healthcare sector, she brings her international experience to bear in creating sustainable, digital transformational change for organisations across a broad range of industries in both public and private sectors.

With a PhD in Computing Science, Christina has an international reputation for expertise in Digital Technologies and MedTech and is a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health and a Certified Health Informatician Australasia, an elite credentialing program for health informatics professionals. She was honoured in her native Sweden as one of Medtech’s 100 ‘Most powerful people in the nation’ in 2016 and 2017.

In her senior executive position as the Chief Digital Officer at Service NSW and part of the senior executive management, Christina has the accountability and responsibility for the Digital Services Division to create, implement, provide vision, strategy, leadership, governance and oversees the delivery of strategic digital programs and fosters collaboration with public and private sectors to design and execute a digital and data vision that advances digital capabilities within the organisation and delivers innovative digital products for the NSW Government.

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Tom Gao Chief Tech & Digital Services Officer at City of Sydney
Tom is a seasoned digital and technology leader with extensive experience in project and line management across digital and Microsoft platforms. With... More

Tom is a seasoned digital and technology leader with extensive experience in project and line management across digital and Microsoft platforms. With a track record of success in both startup and enterprise environments, he excels in leading teams to deliver complex IT-enabled change projects while effectively engaging stakeholders.

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Peter Hind Principal Research Analyst at ADAPT
One of the ICT industry’s foremost analysts and commentators, Peter Hind has spent over 25 years advising and talking on topics across... More

One of the ICT industry’s foremost analysts and commentators, Peter Hind has spent over 25 years advising and talking on topics across the technology industry. His primary areas of interest are the potential of technology to transform the way organisations operate, the change management obstacles executives encounter in realising this potential, as well as the tactics and techniques leaders have deployed to overcome these difficulties.​

With roles across IDC, Unisys, NCR, Sigma Data, and others, Peter now takes on multiple roles within ADAPT including the moderation of private events and roundtables, interviewing business executives about the strategies they are pursuing and assisting with the structuring of delegate surveys.​

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transformation culture skills