Home Affairs taps ex-Microsoft exec to lead AI development

Home Affairs has hired former Microsoft executive Rishi Nicolai to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence across its operations. 

Nicolai spent 13 years at Microsoft in various roles, most recently as a Copilot behavioural specialist. 

He will now hold the title of director of AI adoption at Home Affairs, and according to his LinkedIn profile, be tasked with "driving generative AI capabilities to assist the Australian government lead its productivity ambitions".

iTnews understands the role will be focused on AI use within Home Affairs, rather than across the broader Australian Public Service.

“This next chapter is a powerful opportunity to lead transformative change, and I’m energised by the challenge of helping shape how AI can serve the public good with integrity and impact,” he wrote on LinkedIn.  

Nicolai's appointment comes as Home Affairs dips its toes into AI, unveiling several early-stage proof-of-concepts at the AI Government Showcase in Canberra in July.  

Among these was a "simple" chatbot built using open-source tool Ollama, which was spun up in two weeks to assist with updates to the department’s legacy Java codebase.

Another used Microsoft's small-language-model Phi-2 model to analyse and summarise the sentiment within APS census data. Phi-2 also supported the automation of internal culture survey processing within the Australian Border Force (ABF).

The model was then upgraded to Microsoft’s Phi-4 and trained on relevant data to support visa-related queries.

Through this work, Home Affairs developed a proof-of-concept for a question-and-answer bot capable of responding to user queries, while citing relevant legislation to verify the accuracy of its responses.

The department now aims to expand its AI use cases on its AWS platform and fine-tune models "using more powerful computational infrastructure", according to details revealed during the showcase.