Bury Council is considering implementing AI to boost service efficiency and close budget gaps.
The local authority is planning to implement AI technology to streamline administrative tasks and cut costs, while creating more opportunities for staff.
The move comes as an attempt to close the council’s £16m budget gap, with the changes predicted to create roughly £1m in savings.
To support its £3m ‘strategic workforce review’, the council is striving to reduce the number of unoccupied manager roles, as well as limiting the need for agency workers.
This is to be accelerated by the use of AI to ‘automate mundane administrative tasks’ and enhance service delivery, leading to an eventual scaling down of the council's workforce.
Cllr Sean Thorpe, Bury Council’s deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and transformation, said: ‘Without continuing to transform the council, we’re going to go under. So we’ve got to look at all possibilities’.
He explained that due to the small size of the local authority, it’s even more important for it to embrace AI.
Cllr Thorpe added: ‘To be clear, we’re not saying we’re going to bring in AI and get rid of all administrative roles, because you still need people in the organisation. But it’s an opportunity for those people to grow and develop in other ways’.
To learn more about how AI is being used by councils, check out the LocalGov special report Digital Transformation, AI and Local Government: The Case for Workforce Upskilling.
