Humphrey will help speed up administrative tasks for civil servants in areas such as social care.
The name is a nod to 1980s BBC TV comedy series Yes Minister, and specifically Humphrey Appleby, a smooth talking civil servant played by Sir Nigel Hawthorne.
Developed by the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), the platform has already gone live in a trial stage. 25 councils are now using Minute, a note-taking tool which is one of several functionalities built into the system. Social care workers and supervisors also stand to benefit from this technology.
‘From parking permits and planning permission, local councils handle some of the services that impact our daily lives most. For too long, they have been left to fend for themselves when keeping up with rapid innovations in AI and digital technology – when we know it has huge potential to help solve many of the challenges they face,’ said AI and digital government minister Feryal Clark.
‘That’s why ‘Humphrey’, a suite of exciting AI tools built in my department, is being sent to town halls to help them fast track planning decisions, build 1.5 million homes and take meeting notes more quickly,’ Clark continued.
Analysis suggests Minute has is already saving around one hour of administrative time for every hour long meeting. Civil servants have also reported that note-taking is the least enjoyable part of their work. The hope is this efficiency measure will contribute to Sir Keir Starmer’s pledge to save £45billion worth of productivity savings across government services.
The recent State of Digital Government Review showed that local authorities were spending £5billion on technology annually, but employed around half the number of digital specialists they should for their size and scale. 320 councils across the country also negotiate their own technology contracts, rather than collaborating on this, which would secure ‘economies of scale’, promote and facilitate data, knowledge and best practice sharing.
Image: Mimi Thian / Unsplash
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