Analysis of UK government AI skills research reveals how worker “skills gaps” frame masks organisational deployment failures. Why distrust of AI is rational, not a training deficit.

A DfE content designer with 40 years’ government experience examines the 2025 digital roadmap. Strong on transparency and talent, but measurement gaps around vulnerable users risk turning transformation into structural exclusion. Includes what trauma-informed design would actually look like.

The Senior Managers and Certification Regime forces financial services to prove they’re not harming vulnerable customers. What would happen if government digital projects had to follow the same rules? Drawing on experience with Universal Credit, Cabinet Office COVID response, and other major programmes, this article explores how SMCR would create real accountability for content that works for people in crisis.

The people training your AI chatbots are telling their children never to use them. They’ve seen the rushed timelines, inadequate training data, and ignored safety concerns. They’re experiencing PTSD, moral injury, and relationship breakdowns from the work. If the insiders won’t trust these systems with their 10-year-olds, how are you meeting Consumer Duty obligations by deploying them with financially vulnerable customers?

The COVID-19 Inquiry documented a failure that should embarrass everyone in government digital services: no British Sign Language interpretation at press conferences, no accessible formats for emergency guidance. The Inquiry states plainly: “Everyone should be able to understand the action their government is asking them to take.” So where was GDS? Where were the senior content designers? An insider who worked in the Cabinet Office during COVID exposes what went wrong and asks the uncomfortable question: would a future government just outsource this to AI?

I’ve watched billions burn on government IT projects that promised revolution and delivered chaos. When executives defend AI valuations using the same rhetoric vendors used to sell Universal Credit, I recognise the pattern. The infrastructure is real. The technology is revolutionary. This time it’s different. Except it never is.

One million UK households cancelled broadband they couldn’t afford. Now McDonald’s, supermarkets and essential services charge more to people without apps. This is structural digital exclusion.

We keep building AI systems without asking if we should. After 40 years in digital transformation, I’ve seen what happens when moral questions get parked.