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ICS.AI has won a contract (via the G-Cloud framework) worth £6.3m for “Phase 2” of Cheshire East Council’s AI transformation work.
The council is pursuing AI transformation driven by acute financial and demographic pressures. According to figures laid out in a paper presented to its Corporate Policy Committee in March 2025, Cheshire East faces a £100m budget shortfall over four years, with Adult Social Care consuming approximately 62% of the overall council budget and service demand having dramatically increased (over 4,600 people are awaiting some form of intervention in adult social care, plus children's services have seen Education , Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) requests double in six months).
The council’s overall AI programme promises substantial returns – projecting financial benefits of between £40m and £60m over a three-year period (with £12m-£14m per year savings ongoing thereafter) – and will adopt a phased implementation approach that starts with “high-impact, lower-risk modules”.
Its AI strategy, approved at the meeting in March, targets three priority areas: Customer Service will deploy an AI copilot system providing round-the-clock support in multiple languages (aimed at reducing contact centre volumes; Adult Social Care will use AI to streamline care needs evaluations and support planning (reducing administrative backlogs); and Children's Services will leverage AI-supported workflows to enhance the EHCP process.
Councils need to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives in order to drive critical efficiencies right across their service portfolios. Cheshire East Council’s AI deployment represents an essential component of its Digital Acceleration Programme – and it will be looking to ape the successes of ICS.AI customers such as Derby City Council, which announced at last month’s SOCITM President’s Conference that it’d made £7.5m in savings from its own AI transformation programme to date; news which prompted ICS.AI to issue a “formally guarantee” of savings of “at least £5m per year” for qualifying mid-sized councils that adopt its SMART: AI platform.
Posted by: Craig Wentworth at 10:17
Tags:
transformation
Local Government