Purpose

To make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in line with the principles set out below, to position us to empower all LGSCO staff and increase our capacity to remedy injustice as effectively as possible.

Vision

Our vision is for AI based technology to be a tool that helps us improve the services we provide in a way that is responsible, fair and easily understood by all.

We aim to achieve this by harnessing the power of AI technology wherever this can help our staff to deal with repetitive and time-consuming tasks, thereby empowering them to increase our capacity to help those using our service. 

Principles

AI will not make our decisions.  It will only be used as a tool to help our staff to reach their own, properly informed decisions.

We will be open and transparent about our use of AI and publish clear statements so that our staff, service users and other stakeholders understand why and where we are using this technology.

We will only use AI where it is necessary to achieve a legitimate goal for the organisation, where the risks are understood, and any potential harms minimised.

We will thoroughly test any application of AI before using it in our work, taking account of risks and benefits, and will regularly review and update our AI systems to ensure they remain robust, secure, effective, justifiable and in line with our aims.

Our AI technology will be designed to complement our people’s skills, particularly focused on performing repetitive or time-consuming tasks, enabling colleagues to focus on work requiring their professional expertise.

Data governance remains paramount. All personal and confidential data will continue to be held and managed securely; any use of AI will be within strict parameters and will in no way compromise the integrity of the information we hold, or otherwise breach people’s right to privacy.

We will develop our use of AI in line with ethical guidelines from authoritative sources and ensure any use of AI is equitable and inclusive. We will convene a Governance and Ethics committee with Board-level involvement to oversee this.

We will provide practical training and support to our staff to ensure they are confident and competent in using AI tools safely.

We aim to get to a position where we can hold bodies in our jurisdiction to account to ensure any AI applications they rely on to reach decisions are used responsibly and transparently.

We will deal with any concerns about our use of AI in a fair and balanced way.

Focus areas & objectives

By 31 March 2026 we will:

• Ensure all our staff will have completed mandatory AI literacy and awareness training.
• Identify and prioritise at least five suitable AI use cases and begin to progress those that are feasible.
• Conduct a data quality and lineage assessment focused particularly on document management to ensure it is of sufficient quality and reliability to support any prioritised AI use cases.
• Establish an ethical and policy framework for AI development, deployment and governance.

By 31 March 2027 we will:

• Have scaled up successful AI use cases to full rollout
• Have continued to explore new AI applications and address emerging challenges 
• Consider how we can deepen AI literacy and skills in the LGSCO 

Outcome Measures

While each AI-related project will be expected to have specific and measurable objectives, we will also set out some broad measures of success for this strategy as a whole:

• Successful implementation of at least three of the five prioritised AI use cases, as defined by the specific measures in the use case pilots.
• A large proportion of staff report finding the initial AI literacy training beneficial in post-training surveys.
• Achieve a high trust and confidence level in relation to using AI within the workplace, as measured by a specific survey conducted before and after the AI literacy training.
• The establishment of an active ‘AI champions’ network within the LGSCO who will embrace new tools and provide feedback and leadership in the use of them. Their involvement will complete the cycle from development to launch and continuous improvement.
• AI tools have a measurable positive effect in reducing the time taken to deal with customer contacts and complete some investigative actions. This will be evidenced first through piloting before full roll-out.
• Publication of a clear and accessible statement on the LGSCO website outlining the organisation's AI strategy, ethical framework, and details of implemented AI use cases.

Date: April 2025