Derby City Council eyes £12.25m annual savings with AI and chatbot deployments | Computer Weekly
Summary
“We are able to undertake much more effective reviews of social care, for example,” said Andy Brammall, the council’s director of digital and physical infrastructure and customer engagement. “It is less a cost reduction exercise, but more about filling in gaps in the workforce, or reducing time to delivery.” This initial project saw the council roll out both “phone-based” AI, in place of a conventional IVR system and switchboards, and two chatbots, Darcie and Ali. Second, it guaranteed that the AI engine would be available and meet performance standards.” Derby City Council’s project is one of a growing number of initiatives looking to improve efficiency and productivity in the public sector. Research carried out by Goldsmiths University, for Microsoft, found that public sector workers could save more than 23 million hours of administration each week if AI tools were deployed across the board. “This number appears to be growing exponentially.” Anderson sees local authorities deploying AI in two ways: Copilot for Microsoft 365, and through existing enterprise software packages.