The Public Service Commissioner says there's signs of optimism and room for improvement in this year's survey of public servants. 

The poll of 40 thousand workers found 80 percent think there's a staff shortage and workloads are too high. 

Commissioner Brian Roche says AI, not more staff, could be the answer. 

He says he's not making much of the finding - a third of public servants thought they were underpaid.

"I've never been in a workplace where there's an element of people who don't think they should get paid more."

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