Hillingdon Council has launched an AI powered customer service platform under a partnership with ICS.AI as an early step in a wider transformation programme.
The company said the new SMART: Customer Service Copilot is the only AI assistant designed specifically for local government.
It can handle resident enquiries 24/7 through the web and telephone in multiple languages, provides self-service options and is trained for local authority applications for services such as waste management, parking permits and housing.
Its voice assistant is based on Microsoft technology, is integrated with the council's existing telephony solution and includes an SMS function, while the web assistant’s conversational interface will be embedded within the council's public website. The latter provides knowledge based articles and processes for self-service.
Cllr Martin Goddard, Hillingdon Council’s cabinet member for finance and transformation, said: “Reshaping our customer and staff processes, with ICS.AI as an enabler, will help us continue to put our residents first and achieve our digital strategy vision to improve the way the council delivers services to residents by utilising technology”.
“By adopting customer focused technology, we will enable our residents to access the services they need quickly and at their own convenience, whilst also delivering more efficient and effective processes for council staff.”
AI ambition
Hillingdon’s chief operating officer, Matthew Wallbridge, told UKAuthority’s Powering Digital Public Services conference last week that move is part of the council’s broad drive towards AI driven automation, with an ambition to take this into areas of assessment and case management.
“We will automate most of our business processes so that people don’t need to touch us, and we will have voice and automation at front door and they can access us 24/7 365,” he said. “That’s pretty difficult to do, but we want a contactless centre so we can move the resource to supporting the most vulnerable people in our society through having deep and more meaningful conversations with them to solve their problems first time.
“We have a data construct by which we have a single view of our customer and household.
“Also, where we have costly pieces like adult social care, children’s social care, SEND, education and temporary accommodation, we want to automate assessments around those people.”
Changing the resource base
Wallbridge said there are plans to move to end-to-end automated assessments over the next six months, providing scope to change the council’s financial model and its resource base for assessing and supporting people.
He also spoke of having “a singular front door that helps people with a multitude of needs”, which will help the council to help people in a cheaper and more effective way.
“We want our services to be cheaper and better,” he said. “Fundamentally that’s what AI does.”
But he warned that, with the technology developing so quickly, some solutions could be out-of-date in a matter of months, and that organisations have to try to understand how their costs will change.
