AI 'will not replace council staff' vow

Stockton Council has been testing AI transcribing software

Council workers have been assured there will "always" be the need for "face to face" contact with residents despite the rising use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Stockton Labour councillor Pauline Beall said even though the local authority was "going down as the AI route as much as we can", it would not replace staff "especially in adults and children's [care] where it has been trialled".

The local authority has approved several uses of AI such as back-office automation, fraud detection and forecasting social care needs and housing support.

The council's head of digital services and systems Corinne Moore claimed the team was taking a "safe and cautious" approach to AI.

At a meeting last week, Ms Moore said the team had recently completed an AI transcription pilot which was rolling out across adult and children's services.

She said this could generate "some significant time savings and administration time writing reports", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Beall said: "There will always be the need for face-to-face contact with our residents.

"I can give you that assurance that we won't be just having bots deal with assessments.

"It will be used where appropriate, not to replace professional staff."