Pembrokeshire County Council has appointed ICS.AI to deliver a multi-year AI Transformation Programme contracted at £4.95m, described as the most comprehensive AI adoption programme undertaken by a Welsh local authority to date. The initial period is three years, with an option to extend.
The contract follows an AI transformation assessment led by ICS.AI, in which more than 100 council employees took part in 40 hours of workshops across 25 service areas. It identified 108 AI use cases with clear implementation pathways. The programme will deploy a unified AI platform with resident-facing AI, governed AI for staff and AI agents, delivered through ICS.AI's SMART AI Transformation Programme.
Phase one focuses on high-volume, high-impact services. It includes a Citizen Phone AI assistant, a generative AI voice service able to handle more than 230,000 resident calls a year in Welsh and English, and a Citizen Web AI assistant for digital self-service. Staff will get SMART Chat and SMART Notes, initially aimed at reducing administrative workloads in Adult Social Care and Children's Services, alongside AI inbox management, drafting support for Individual Development Plans, and AI-assisted council tax debt recovery. Later phases are expected to cover Freedom of Information requests, adult social care assessments, housing repairs, financial assessments, IT service management and provider intelligence.
The council faces rising demand for children's and adult social care services, and Audit Wales has highlighted concerns about its long-term financial sustainability and reliance on reserves. The programme is expected to identify recurring annual savings of between £3.3m and £6.7m once fully implemented, and ICS.AI has underpinned it with a minimum annual saving of £2.5m, subject to the council carrying out the agreed transformation measures.
Will Bramble, Chief Executive of Pembrokeshire County Council, said: "Like councils across the UK, we are facing increasing demand for services at a time of significant financial pressure. This programme is about embracing innovation to help us protect and improve the services our residents rely on every day."
Martin Neale, Founder and CEO of ICS.AI, said: "Pembrokeshire has taken a strategic approach by identifying where AI can make the greatest impact across the whole organisation, rather than introducing isolated point solutions."
ICS.AI says its SMART platform already supports councils handling more than 12 million AI interactions a year, and that it identified savings of £12m at Derby City Council through a similar approach.
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