Artificial Intelligence (AI) could soon be writing documents and answering questions from residents, as Bath & North East Somerset Council looks for ways to save money.
The local authority is consulting on plans to save an extra £6.2 million through cuts and new income in its next budget.
But while cuts are planned in many areas, the council is proposing to spend £65,000 on AI.
AI programs can now write convincing human-sounding text, but concerns remain about accuracy and AI “hallucinations”. The council is hoping the technology can “increase staff efficiency”.
It is looking at using it for chatbots to answer residents’ queries, creating draft documents, and summarising meetings and phone calls. A detailed equalities impact assessment will be undertaken for each different use of AI at the council.
A council spokesperson said: “We are currently consulting on our budget proposals which include piloting the use of AI to improve services to our residents.
“Benefits to residents of using AI could include faster response times to queries and easier access to information about our services.”
An equalities impact assessment into the council’s use of AI said: “Ambient voice AI is now in use as a pilot for social care teams having in person meetings with service users. Initial feedback has been positive from service users and staff.”
The council set out its plans to invest in AI as it launched the consultation on its plans for its 2025/26 budget. The council said it had “faced escalating costs” since it last set its budget in February.
£8.4 million of cuts and new ways of generating revenue had already been identified by the council, but now ways to save another £6.2 million have been drawn up.
The savings include increasing green bin charges from £57 to £70 to generate £350,000, increasing the baseline price of residents parking permits from £100 to £120 to generate £172,000, and a maximum council tax increase of 4.99%, of which 2% will be ringfenced for spending on adult social care.
The council is also proposing to increase its budget by a total of £13.8 million, a figure which both accounts for the increase in costs and demand on services and includes new investment, such as the spending on AI.
The council also wants to spend £350,000 on bringing more home-to-school transport in-house with its own vehicles and employed drivers. The move is estimated to save the council £600,000.
The council’s budget will go through several council scrutiny panels in January before going before the council cabinet on 13th February, and to a meeting of full council on 25th February for final approval.
The consultation on the budget proposals runs until 5pm on 20th January. You can respond to the consultation here: https://www.bathnes.gov.uk/budget-consultation-2025-2026
If you need support, a printed survey, information in another format including audio, braille, large print or in another language, or you would like to feedback on any other aspect of this consultation, you can contact [email protected] or call 01225 39 60 53.
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporter
