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Governance within Artificial Intelligence is often overlooked, due to the speed and scale in which AI solutions need to be released to end users, with only a consideration to what should have been done retrospectively. Sam Brennan-Ogle, Solutions Architect at Opencast, explores why governance in a world of AI is critical not just for delivery but to ensure ethical and responsible practice as well as what the impact of ignoring governance can and will have on AI, end users and organisations.

Last week, more than 100 engineers and developers from across central and local government came together at Opencast HQ for GovDev North 2026, the northern edition of the Cross-Government Software Engineering Community's conference. In this blog, Francis O'Brien, Senior Software Developer at Opencast, reflects on the day, sharing highlights from the sessions, the conversations that took place, and why communities like GovDev North are so important for supporting and connecting people across government technology teams.

In this blog, Opencast Senior Service Designer Dr Angela Orviz reflects on her presentation at SDinGov 2026, exploring why service designers need a deeper understanding of data and analytics ecosystems. She discusses the shift from siloed transformation to ecosystem thinking, the challenges of data transformation in government, and the role service design can play in supporting more strategic decision-making.