AI technology could help a council manage pressures from staff vacancies and make savings.

Torfaen Borough Council has agreed to contribute £516,000 from its reserves towards a £2.6 million bill to introduce a single approach to using artificial intelligence across four Gwent councils.

The programme is led by the SRS, or Shared Reserve Service, the technology partnership for Newport, Monmouthshire, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent councils. Shared Resources Services, the technology partnership formed by a number of Gwent councils, is to approve global tech giant Amazon as its preferred procurement partner for two AI programmes.

When Monmouthshire council agreed, in June, to participate in a three-year AI trial run by the SRS its cabinet was told among the initiatives to be rolled out is a programme to collate data on individual children and to use that to make decisions including through predictive analytics.

A decision report written by Torfaen council’s deputy chief executive, Dave Leech, hasn’t specified in detail how the council would use AI.

But it said the technology could be used for task such as redaction, translation and summarisation of documents using approved AI assistants in a “secure and governed environment” while AI bots could “significantly improve the ability of customers to contact the council at a time convenient to them”.

Mr Leech’s report stated: “The AI programme aims to deliver improved outcomes for residents; manage the pressures of vacant roles; create opportunities for staff to develop new skills; and support with the risk of unsustainable workloads.”

The SRS will use Amazon AWS and its Pro Services Partner for the project.

The spending on the AI programme has been agreed by council leader, Labour’s Anthony Hunt.