Wiltshire Council leader open to AI tech but careful introduction needed
Cllr Richard Clewer says it would not lead to the Council sacking people
The Leader of Wiltshire Council has told us they're looking at how they can introduce AI to boost their service - but that it will need to be done carefully.
Cllr Richard Clewer said it's been assessed over the last eight years, saying technology has moved forward significantly since then.
Council's such as Dorset are introducing technology to handle incoming calls, helping them to make savings with a smaller workforce.
Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer has said the technology holds 'vast potential' to boost public services across the UK.
Cllr Clewer said the early forays into AI use were with 'chatbots', but said they weren't as useful as they could have been: "they tend to cause as much frustration as they cause benefit when you get a chat bot that refuses to understand plain English, it can be really quite annoying," he said.
The Council Leader said they're looking at how AI can be used as an assessment tool.
Cllr Clewer said: "When you're dealing with some complex areas around adult social care applications and provision and gathering data, I think there are areas there where AI could definitely be of use, where it could streamline systems, where it could mean you're getting to the right answer much more quickly, taking up much less of residents time."
He added the use of AI will 'drive efficiency', but he assured us that no one would be sacked.
Cllr Clewer said: "It will mean in the longer term, I would hope that by bringing AI in, it will be given more efficient service and potentially a service that that involves less people doing more manual, more clerical type work. That doesn't mean that we'll be sacking people."
But he accepted that as systems changed, natural staff turnover may see actual staff numbers reduced slightly.
He said: "It would probably mean in the future fewer people were employed in certain areas, but I have not had any presentation given to me by officers that says, oh, if we do this, we can cut this many posts that, that isn't the way we'd be looking at it."
Cllr Clewer said all use of AI would focus more resource or services that require people delivering the preventative work that makes the Council effective.