SMART Staff Copilot: Transforming Local Government with AI

ICS AI
May 1
4 min read

Updated: May 6

The All-in-One AI Solution Delivering £5M in Potential Annual Savings

Earlier this week, we hosted our highly anticipated official launch webinar for SMART: Staff Copilot, with over 450 registered attendees from local authorities across the UK. The session showcased how this unified AI platform combines secure generative AI capabilities with intelligent voice documentation and notetaking in a single solution designed specifically for council staff productivity.

The Challenge: Doing More with Less

The webinar opened by addressing the fundamental challenge facing local government today: delivering essential services with increasingly constrained resources. As our speakers highlighted, councils need innovative approaches to achieve financial sustainability while maintaining or improving service delivery.

Matthew Wallbridge, Chief Operating Officer at London Borough of Hillingdon, summarised this challenge eloquently: "Whatever we can do to both save money and improve customer satisfaction and resident experience is absolutely critical. By investing in AI, investing in the understanding of data, but also investing in the people that work for Hillingdon... we're looking at delivering financial sustainability over the medium term."

A Unified Approach to AI

What differentiates SMART: Staff Copilot is its comprehensive, all-in-one approach. Rather than deploying separate solutions for different functions, the platform unites multiple AI capabilities:

Personal AI Assistance (SMART: GPT) - Secure, organisation-specific generative AI capabilities with over 1,800 pre-built council templates
Intelligent Voice Documentation (SMART: Notes) - AI-powered voice recording and transcription achieving 98% accuracy
Real-time AI Interaction (SMART: Live) - real-time voice and video AI assistance during citizen interactions (coming soon)
Proactive Task Automation (SMART: Agentic) – AI-powered agents working proactively to automate routine tasks and streamline workflows (coming soon)

This unified approach delivers significant cost advantages compared to standalone solutions, with potential annual savings of up to £5 million for mid-sized unitary councils.

Real-World Impact: Derby City Council

Andy Brammall, Director of Digital & Physical Infrastructure & Customer Engagement at Derby City Council, shared their pioneering AI journey, including the successful pilot of "Perrie," their implementation of SMART: GPT: "Once we gave this to people to start testing, we can't prize it out of their hands," Andy explained. Staff testimonials confirmed this enthusiasm, with users reporting that the solution saves them approximately an hour each day on tasks ranging from routine emails to complex strategic analysis.

Transforming Social Care

Perhaps the most compelling section of the webinar was the exploration of how SMART: Notes has the potential to revolutionise social care practice. Social workers from Facilitate Consulting demonstrated how the technology will allow social care staff to maintain eye contact and fully engage with service users, rather than splitting attention between conversation and note-taking.

Watch the feedback video here, where as one social worker explained, "When you think about a social worker, you've got a caseload, you're going out, you're doing your visits. And in order for it to be person-centred and capture everything, you really need to concentrate on your conversation... With this, you've got accuracy there and it saves all that time of scribing, and you can make that connection and really build that rapport and relationship with the person."

The potential impact is substantial:

Saving approximately one day per week per social worker
Reducing assessment backlogs from 6 weeks to 1 week
Capturing the voice of service users more accurately
Improving evidence for decision-making

Derby City Council's Social Care Perspective

Andy Appleyard, Director of Adult Social Services at Derby City Council, provided additional insights into how SMART: Staff Copilot could address key challenges in social care delivery. In his video interview, he comments: "We see banks and banks of desks of social workers. Everybody's working incredibly hard, everybody's doing what we would expect them to do, but our social workers spend far too much time sitting in the council house rather than being out in the communities working with people."

He emphasised how this technology could create capacity without requiring additional recruitment in a challenging labour market: "The SMART: Notes product has the potential to give us capacity that I haven't been able to create”.

Perhaps most importantly, he highlighted how the solution can improve both efficiency and quality of care: "It will open up the door for us to be able to work in a different way and free up the capacity of our staff to be able to look at “how do I see people earlier on their journey”, which from a preventative point of view means that I can spend time with you today when you've got a new need or an escalating problem."

Enterprise-Grade Security

A major focus throughout the webinar was the platform's enterprise-grade security model. Unlike some alternatives that require data to leave council control, SMART: Staff Copilot maintains all sensitive data within the council's secure tenant, using existing compliance frameworks and security measures.

This approach significantly simplifies governance requirements while ensuring the highest standards of data protection for vulnerable residents.

The Compelling ROI

The webinar outlined the clear business case for AI transformation:

Up to £5M annual savings for mid-sized councils
40% reduction in administrative time
80% faster documentation completion
Reduced assessment backlogs
More time for high-value resident interactions

Take the Next Step: Free 30-day Test Drive

For councils interested in experiencing these benefits firsthand, we’re offering a no-commitment Test Drive as your first step in exploring how SMART: Staff Copilot can revolutionise your services. The Test Drive gives you the chance to discover the full potential or SMART: Staff Copilot in action during a 30-day free trial. Get hands-on by registering for one of our workshops to get started.

Conclusion

As local government continues to face increasing demand with constrained resources, SMART: Staff Copilot offers a pathway to sustainable transformation. By unifying AI capabilities in a secure, cost-effective solution, councils can enhance productivity across departments while maintaining focus on what matters most – serving residents effectively.