BOSSES have explained how AI will be used to help make job cuts at Worcestershire County Council.
The authority is planning to cut up to 100 roles as part of a huge cost-saving exercise.
At a meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny performance board on Wednesday (June 24), committee chair David Taylor asked whether AI was being used to make the savings needed to make 100 job cuts.
Chief executive Paul Robinson said AI will take over “process-driven” tasks in multiple roles across the council, such as answering the phone to free up time for social workers, and those time savings will add up to the equivalent of 100 jobs.
BOSSES: Worcestershire County Council’s deputy leader Adam Kent and chief executive Paul Robinson in the committee meeting on Wednesday (Image: Worcestershire County Council/YouTube)
“It’s not that one job will be completely replaced by AI. Ten per cent will be freed up by AI. We do that for 10 people, we’ve got the equivalent to one full-time person,” said Mr Robinson.
“So then if someone leaves, we can do exactly the same as we did before with nine people, not 10.
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“Only if we don’t have vacancies – if we don’t have people leave, or retirements, will we move to the position of redundancy.”
He said AI could take the role of someone who only processes invoices but this would be a “rare case”.
Mr Robinson said: “Staff could think of a million and one things we could use AI for but the point is focus because I want to use AI for efficiency and to drive our costs down.”
HEADQUARTERS: Worcestershire County Council’s Wildwood offices in Worcester (Image: Google Maps)
He warned about using the technology carefully because the council has limited resources and giving people unlimited capacity to report genuine issues will “overwhelm the system incredibly quickly”.
“Simply applying AI in a blunt tool approach will drive demand through the roof,” the CEO said.
Councillor Richard Morris said: “I feel we’ve been here before. We’ve talked about bringing in technology but nothing happens.
“We cannot just keep moving the deckchairs around – we need to do something fundamental. I’m getting a real sense of deja vu here.
“We need to buy something off the shelf – we don’t have time to develop something.
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“I’m onside – I understand what you’re saying. But we don’t have time to delay.”
Adam Kent, cabinet member for finance, corporate services and business, said: “I totally agree. There are things we can do straight away. We haven’t got time to waste.”
He called on all 57 councillors to be pro-active and to speak up when they spot something that can be done more efficiently.
Cllr Taylor also questioned the wisdom of spending £500,000 on a ‘corporate transformation programme’ report by consultants PwC.
Mr Robinson said the report couldn’t have been produced by the council internally and could save the council £9.5m a year, for a £500,000 one-off spend.
