Boss of AI firm says Scottish councils could save frontline services from the axe by embracing technology

Expert urges authorities to consider ‘third way’ instead of slashing services or raising charges

Swingeing cuts to frontline services in Scotland could be averted if public bodies embraced the latest technology, according to the boss of an artificial intelligence (AI) firm.

David Cameron, chief executive of an AI and automation technologies company called Aivantor, believed councils could quickly make a 20 per cent saving on their administrative costs, without compulsory redundancies, by making use of automation in the likes of contact centres, finance departments and HR.

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He said the savings could soon rise to 40 per cent, but that local authorities were instead taking the easy way out by annually slashing spending on things like grass-cutting, and hiking charges for other services, when they could be redesigning departments.

Mr Cameron, who wrote a business case for Essex County Council about 18 months ago which targeted a 20 per cent saving in customer services, highlighted this “third way” amid his own frustration at proposals currently being considered by his local authority in South Lanarkshire.

The Uddingston-based businessman is concerned his children’s music tuition could be disrupted by a plan to reduce the number of instructors in the area.

“It’s incredibly frustrating,” he said. “It’s the lack of ambition in terms of undertaking more meaningful productivity improvements to balance budgets, and going after what are perceived to be easy targets.

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“Joe Fagan (South Lanarkshire Council leader) came out at new year and said difficult choices need to be made. As far as I’m concerned they are not making difficult choices, they are making easy choices.

“Because the difficult choices are actually undertaking long-term service redesign.

“These are difficult things to do, we are not undermining that. But instead what they do is, ‘well we’ll just cut that here, we’ll just red pen that there’, and that will get us some money saved.

“That is where that frustration comes from. There is a third way to do this.”

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David Cameron, CEO of Aivantor David Cameron, CEO of Aivantor
David Cameron, CEO of Aivantor | submitted

Mr Cameron added: “What we’re asking them is to just be a bit more ambitious in terms of their outlook, and to properly consider service redesign and options as part of their consultations.

“Administrative roles are the ones that are most prime for transformation. It’s hard to automate grass-cutting, so leave that one alone and go and take 30 per cent out of the cost of your contact centre.”

He highlighted the example of Octopus Energy, which said in 2023 it had built an AI model in six weeks that essentially answered incoming emails, and was now doing the work of 250 people, with a higher customer satisfaction rate.

“They (councils) might not get it right, but if you don’t start on the journey you are never going to get there. If they were focussed and could make things happen, you could start to make these benefits in two to three months,” he said.

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Mr Cameron believed the same benefits would be available for other parts of the public sector, including the NHS.

He said: “I’ve been speaking to various people in the NHS and they’ve got an absolutely identical problem. In fact there was an oncologist in one of the large NHS areas I was talking to. He said, ‘I cure cancer but using AI and automation for innovation is harder’.

“That really blew me away. This man is saving lives, and he is telling me he can’t get basic innovation through his IT department because they just block it, because they don’t know how to do it.”

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