AI that understands Britain: ICS.AI develops new framework for inclusive public services

Following the announcement of its partnership with the University of Sheffield, ICS.AI is building one of the UK’s first practical frameworks for linguistically inclusive conversational AI

Basingstoke, UK; 4 June 2026: Conversational AI is becoming central to the delivery of public services across the UK, from local government and higher education to healthcare and social care. As these systems become more widely used, ICS.AI is investing in a practical framework to ensure AI can operate effectively across the full diversity of the way people speak in Britain.

Building on its recently announced partnership with the University of Sheffield, ICS.AI is combining academic research, live public sector deployments, and operational AI expertise to develop one of the UK’s first frameworks for linguistically inclusive conversational AI.

Applying sociolinguistics to AI

Earlier this year, ICS.AI announced it had commissioned a new national study with the University of Sheffield to explore one of the biggest challenges facing public sector AI: how well digital services understand people who speak with different regional accents and dialects. This next phase focuses on applying those research insights in real-world environments, helping shape how conversational AI systems are designed, evaluated, and deployed across frontline public services.

ICS.AI is already applying this approach in real-world public sector environments through its work with councils across the UK, including Derby City Council, Renfrewshire Council, and Bristol City Council. Through these deployments, the company’s conversational AI is designed to understand and respond to the natural variation in how residents speak - equitably handling regional accents while accurately interpreting local dialects and conversational phrasing. These live environments are helping ICS.AI refine practical approaches to linguistically inclusive AI at scale, ensuring digital public services work more effectively for the communities they serve.

The UK’s rich linguistic diversity makes it an ideal environment for developing globally relevant approaches to inclusive AI. The work here is expected to map into other countries - linguistic diversity is deeply embedded across the European Union, stretching far beyond distinct national languages to include intense regional dialects, accents, and unique conversational phrasing. This continent-wide variation means that deploying effective communication tools requires navigating a complex, localised tapestry of speech rather than treating individual nations as uniform language blocks. Through live deployments and ongoing collaboration with public sector organisations, ICS.AI is exploring how AI systems can better recognise conversational variation, recover meaning more effectively, and create more natural and trusted interactions for citizens.

Dr. Crispin Bloomfield, Chief Education Solutions Officer at ICS.AI, commented:

“Public services exist to support everyone, and citizens should not have to change the way they speak in order to access essential services. As conversational AI becomes embedded into everyday interactions, there is a responsibility to ensure these systems work fairly, effectively, and naturally across the full diversity of spoken English in the UK. This work is about moving beyond theory and building practical, responsible AI frameworks that reflect how people actually communicate.”

Dr. Chris Montgomery, Senior Lecturer in Dialectology at the University of Sheffield, added

“By grounding their operational AI in rigorous sociolinguistic research, ICS.AI are innovating to extend their systems to further adapt to how people actually speak. Our collaboration represents a rare bridge between academic evidence and live deployment data, allowing us to move beyond aggregate benchmarks. Ultimately, our joint goal is to measure success by how equitably our technology serves diverse voices, ensuring no regional accent or local dialect receives an uneven experience of AI enabled public services.”

ICS.AI’s investment will continue to focus on developing practical standards and operational best practices for dialect-aware AI in public services, supporting more inclusive and trusted citizen experiences at scale.

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