Welsh government used Copilot for review to justify closing organization

The Welsh government used Microsoft's Copilot to help write a review of an industry liaison body that it then scrapped, its chairman has told a Senedd committee.

The government set up Industry Wales as a state-owned company to run sector forums for aerospace, automotive, and technology in 2013, adding a fourth for net zero-focused businesses in 2022.

In January 2025, officials told Industry Wales it would be subject to a review. In August, it said it would be closed based on that review's conclusions as of March 31, 2026. The decision was publicly announced last October, with the government saying it had provided the company with a grant of £837,000 for 2025-26.

Industry Wales chair Professor Keith Ridgway saw a copy of the unpublished review on January 9 to find it was based on 28 interviews with people from unnamed organizations, processed by Microsoft Copilot.

"I was ...