Australia has “high AI agency” but only emerging maturity across much of its artificial intelligence ecosystem, according to a new assessment from the Tech Policy Design Institute (TPDi).
The Canberra-based think tank has released its AI Agency Tool, a framework designed to help governments and policymakers assess where a country has genuine leverage in AI, where it is dependent on others and where investment should be prioritised.
Beyond “AI sovereignty”
TPDi says the tool moves the debate beyond the binary idea of “AI sovereignty” and instead focuses on “AI agency” - a country’s ability to shape AI outcomes, protect and promote national interests, and capture value in a globally connected system.
The tool assesses national capability across 103 AI capabilities grouped into 6 ecosystem layers, including infrastructure and resources, data assets and lifecycle management, models and applications, innovation and adoption, skills, and governance.
TPDi applied the framework to Australia in its 2025 AI Agency Assessment, which found Australia had emerging maturity across most AI capabilities but comparatively high sovereignty and high agency.
"Very high agency" capabilities
The assessment found Australia’s strongest areas were concentrated in eight “very high agency” capabilities. These include strategic and critical minerals, five domain-specific datasets - medical, geospatial, environment and resources, demographic and infrastructure - expertise in computer vision model development, and Australia’s influence in international engagement and norm-setting.
TPDi said these areas give Australia competitive advantages that could be used more deliberately to strengthen national AI capability and increase international leverage.
The institute also mapped its assessment against the Australian Government’s 2025 National AI Plan, finding that every significant government commitment aligned with the assessment’s recommendations. The plan’s focus areas include data centres and supporting infrastructure, public cloud, general AI applications, government and SME adoption, and international engagement.
However, TPDi said the plan did not fully capitalise on all of Australia’s highest-agency capabilities, particularly critical minerals, strategic data assets and computer vision.
Critical gaps
The assessment also identified several critical gaps for future policy attention. These include public sector and public-interest compute infrastructure, data lifecycle management such as copyright, sourcing, validation and annotation, culturally and nationally inclusive models, trusted AI adoption, general AI literacy, specialised AI skills, and regulatory and oversight capability.
TPDi said addressing these gaps would strengthen Australia’s ability to support innovation, research, public services and national resilience, while ensuring AI systems reflect Australian values, cultures and identities.
The institute described the AI Agency Tool as an adaptable and scalable method for governments, regions, sectors and organisations to identify their strengths and dependencies in a fast-moving global AI ecosystem.