Richmond and Wandsworth Councils new pilot for residents receiving adult and social care
Tovie AI, a UK-based conversational AI company, has launched a new pilot with Richmond and Wandsworth Councils for a first-of-a-kind automated outbound call communication service for residents receiving adult and social care.
The trial forms part of the councils’ joint Digital Transformation project aimed at improving public services with the use of digital technology.
Within the adult and social care services, the three-month pilot is being used for two scenarios. In the first instance, Tovie AI’s voice assistant will contact residents on waiting lists and inform them about their application status while gathering updates on their circumstances.
In the second use case the assistant will interact with residents, including those who are considered vulnerable, who have been provided with various electronic devices such as tablets by the council.
The assistant will engage with them to understand their usage of the device, assist with troubleshooting should potential issues arise, and communicate any concerns back to the council team through a central mailbox.
Wendy Jones, Digital Project Manager and Best Interest Assessor for the Transformation and Digital Service serving Richmond and Wandsworth Councils, said: “People across the country expect public services to be high quality, accessible and easily available whenever they are needed.
“When it comes to digital transformation in local government, integrating AI in public services helps centralise various processes, saving time and enhancing the ways these services can be delivered to the community.
“The key is to improve staff productivity, eliminate repetitive manual tasks and manage tight resources to align with the societal shift towards digital technologies.”
According to the Central Digital & Data Office, digital transformation in government “has unrivalled potential to improve the lives of citizens throughout the UK” and is a necessity in order to ensure that government programmes are well designed, run, and tested while at the same time being made more accessible, quicker and easier to use.
This initiative embraces the concept of digital transformation and harnessing technological advancements to the benefit of the public.
Joshua Kaiser, CEO of Tovie AI commented: “Richmond and Wandsworth Councils have been proactive and insightful when considering how proven AI technology can enhance their services and support the delivery by their hard-working teams.
“This pilot is an exciting development and one we are all monitoring daily to see what the results will be and how our technology could further be applied to different use cases across council services.
“Critical to this is how their residents feel cared for, how easy the service has been to use and how it has segued with the delivery teams. This could lead the way for other digital transformation projects across local government and the wider public sector.”
Tovie AI has developed its AI tool to use precise speech recognition and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technologies to communicate with residents naturally and understandably.
The assistant can easily recognise caller intent, carry on a conversation, efficiently manage objections or other unexpected challenges, and significantly reduce the burden of routine inquiries on human agents.
Most importantly, voice technology allows communication with specific categories of citizens through phone calls, their most preferred means of communication.
The AI voice assistant is built to minimise waiting times and provide quality service in high volumes with high levels of personalisation. It aims to reduce anxiety felt by residents over long waiting times, as the voice assistant allows for quicker response times and ensures any issues can be brought forward and escalated with less difficulty.
The UK Government recently released its Spring Budget statement detailing its plans for the upcoming year but the lack of adult social care funding was criticised by many who work within the sector.
