UK to spend £23M on AI to tell benefit claimants where to go

The UK's Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is set to introduce a conversational AI platform it hopes will steer calls from citizens with queries about their benefits. The contract is worth up to £23 million.

The move is part of the government's ambition to improve efficiency with AI across the public sector and manage costs in one of its highest-spending and politically sensitive departments.

The winning supplier will be asked to build an AI platform capable of so-called natural language call steering and host it in a UK-shored dedicated cloud environment.

The DWP is the UK's biggest public service department, managing the State Pension and working-age and disability benefits for around 20 million citizens. Calls are currently answered by advisors within the authority's contact centers on one of the largest call-handling platforms in Europe. The system is spread across 200 locations and supports 27 DWP ...