DTA publishes AI reference architecture for government agencies

The Digital Transformation Agency has published the AI Reference Architecture (AIRA), a voluntary framework to help Australian Government agencies design, procure and govern artificial intelligence systems.

The guidance translates government policy and technical expectations into reusable architectural structures that agencies can adapt to their own objectives, operating environments and risk profiles.

The DTA said the framework is intended to make trade-offs around privacy, accountability, fairness, safety and interoperability visible before agencies commit to a solution - rather than after key technology decisions have already been made.

AIRA is built around four architectural constructs: a functional stack, communication, trustworthiness and assurance, and human agency and oversight.

The functional stack covers five interconnected layers - experience, application and orchestration, intelligence and analytics, data and metadata, and platform and infrastructure - describing the main building blocks needed to operate an AI system.

The trustworthiness and assurance construct calls for safeguards to be designed into systems from the start, including continuous monitoring, explainability, bias reduction, and security and privacy protections across the system's full lifecycle. Agencies are also asked to consider long-term sustainability, including environmental impact and dependence on external providers.

The human oversight construct requires clearly assigned roles and escalation paths for higher-risk or irreversible actions. It also calls for systems to allow people to monitor, pause, change or stop AI operations within appropriate timeframes.

"Artificial intelligence presents enormous opportunities to improve services and outcomes for Australians," said Lucy Poole, deputy CEO of digital strategy, planning and performance at the DTA.

"But agencies need practical tools to make informed decisions about how these technologies are adopted and governed."

Poole likened the architecture to a building's foundations.

"It gives agencies a common foundation for AI without prescribing the final design. Agencies can use that foundation to design systems that reflect their own requirements, services and operating environments," she said.

A companion guide with practical scenarios showing how agencies can apply the architecture is published alongside AIRA. The DTA said use of the architecture is voluntary and supports agencies in meeting applicable requirements but does not replace them.

Last week, the DTA released the Whole-of-Government Cloud Computing Guidance to help Australian Government agencies implement the Cloud Computing Policy, which came into effect on 1 July 2026.